Wulf wrote:

"Well, I must admit that I get sick of Ray's taxonomic papers and of his names! More than one species or genus is named after his wife. Guess that must be real love.

Anyway, I guess Ray's intension is to see his name in the synonymy list of every single species or so...

Someone should open up a case and have the papers supressed by the ICZN."

I think the frustration with unnecessary taxonomic proposals is widespread because there was a recommendation in the draft for the 4th edition of the code that attempts to limit such proposals.

The recommendation reads, according to the web site below:

http://maze.ruca.ua.ac.be/EvolutionaryBiology/coll/doc/iczn4txt.htm

"Recommendation 8A. Wide dissemination.- As well as being obliged to ensure that new names proposed by them after 1996 are entered into the Zoological Record (see Article 11b), authors have a responsibility to ensure that new scientific names, nomenclatural acts, and information likely to affect nomenclature are made widely known. This responsibility is most easily discharged by publication in appropriate scientific journals or well-known monographic series."

Such a recommendation would have restricted taxonomic proposals to the pages of scientific journals. Presumably the peer review process could have been used to prevent many unnecessary (in the minds of the reviewers) taxonomic proposals from ever seeing the light of day. However, such a recommendation would have given scientific journal editors and reviewers too much power over taxonomic matters. Many legitimate proposals could have been rejected because of reasons other than soundness or merit. Hence it is not surprising that, in the end, this recommendation was rejected. See, for example, the following web site:

http://216.109.117.135/search/cache?p=zoological record iczn&ei=UTF-8&cop=mss&u=www.biosis.org/products_services/newn_zr.html&w=zoological record iczn&d=7FC0116749&icp=1

"An earlier discussion draft of the new 4th edition of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, originally due to take formal effect in January 1997, included newly proposed requirements for the effective registration of new scientific names of animals by their inclusion in the Zoological Record. At a meeting of the Code Editorial Committee in Vicenza, Italy, 24-30 June 1996, this proposal was rejected and a new amended draft was prepared for submission to the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN) during the IUBS meeting in Budapest, August 1996. The new 4th edition of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature took effect from 1 January 2000."

Although unnecessary taxonomic proposals present a nuisance of sorts for taxonomists and the scientific community at large, the alternative of restricting them appear far worse. Hence it is unlikely that the ICZN would suppress taxonomic proposals based on their scientific merit. The rejection (or acceptance) of such proposals will still depend on usage and (hopefully) their evaluation by individual zoologists on the basis of scientific merit.

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