Dear Zoobankers:
Well, the gender agreement issue is something for the next edition of the code to address, and ZooBank will always be code compliant.
If gender agreement will be dropped (IF!), then, I strongly hope, only in favour for the preservation of the original spelling (and also giving up the undefined, hence confusing prevailing usage concept; prevailing when? prevailing where?). Retrospective registration can, in my view, only be done from the original publications. Secondary lists or databases can only be applied if they can guarantee that the original literature was checked (which they normally cannot do). Retrospective registration will probably be a twofold process: First getting a reference list through obtaining the names from Zoological Record, Neave, and Sherborn and bridging the gap between Sherborn and ZR, and then (slowly) validating the names by checking (and probably digitizing!) the original descriptions (would be a link to the proposed project to digitize the major natural history libraries in London and the States, forgot the acronym). Sherborne seems to be quite reliable, Neave is erratic and so was Zoological Record some years ago before they introduced their current quality control mechanisms. The validating step is an enormous task and needs substantial funding. Therefore we go for registration of new names first and get this established in the framework of the current code.
Regards,
Frank
Dr Frank-T. Krell
Head, Coleoptera Division
Editor, Systematic Entomology
Department of Entomology
The Natural History Museum
Cromwell Road
London SW7 5BD, U.K.
Tel. +44 (0) 20 7942 5886
Fax +44 (0) 20 7942 5229
f.krell at nhm.ac.uk
http://www.nhm.ac.uk//research-curation/staff-directory/entomology/cv-3566.html
http://myprofile.cos.com/ftkrell
-----Original Message-----
From: zoobank-list-bounces at afriherp.org on behalf of Michael Schmitt
Sent: Mon 06/02/2006 14:41
To: Zoobank Discussion List (ICZN)
Cc:
Subject: Re: [Zoobank-list] GBIF GUID Workshop Report
Dear colleagues,
At 15:13 06.02.2006, Yde de Jong <yjong at science.uva.nl> wrote:
>Beside I think we should already start some discussions on relevant
>issues at this mailinglist. I will try to give a kick-off during the
>next weeks. These issues includes:
>
>...
>(4) Should the ICZN current rule on gender adaption be dropped?
I strongly plead in favour of strict compliance with the current
version of the ICZN. I would find it a scandal if institutional
databases would deliberately violate current regulations, thus
creating facts and predetermining upcoming decisions.
Best wishes
Michael
*****************************************************************
* Prof.Dr. Michael Schmitt (Zoologischer Anzeiger, Editor-in- *
* Chief; Bonner zoologische Beitraege, Editor-in-Chief) *
* Zoologisches Forschungsmuseum Alexander Koenig *
* Adenauerallee 160, D-53113 Bonn, Germany *
* Phone/Fax: +49 228-9122 286, e-mail: m.schmitt at uni-bonn.de *
* http://www.museumkoenig.uni-bonn.de/mit/dnavmit.htm *
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