Ichnotaxonomy: Finding Patterns in a Welter of Information - Trace Fossils as Indicators of Sedimentary Environments - page 63

an ichnogenus, which may also be new. It must be proposed in a scientific pub-
lication that is available to the general community, either for freely or at a price.
This may be a journal article, a book, or even a website as long as it follows
current ICZN guidelines ( Winston, 1999 ). A thesis distributed only among
the members of a university is considered to be an unpublished manuscript,
as are labels in a museum collection. Reports available only within a petroleum
company are also considered to be unpublished with regard to the scientific
community at large. However, new species can be, and have been, named in
the journals of obscure local academies of science, and in any language, testing
the limits of ichnotaxonomists' patience.
The name must be definitely proposed as new. It may not be proposed con-
ditionally, that is, one may not name a fossil that has never been seen, but is
thought to exist, say, as a theoretical transitional form. The author may not
be anonymous.
A new name must be spelt using the Latin alphabet, which may include the
letters j, k, w, or y , even though they were not used in Classical Latin. It may not
include diacritical marks. Originally, virtually all names were proposed in the
Latin language, or as latinized versions of surnames or Greek words, but today
the net has been cast more broadly. However, a genus name is still considered as
being a noun in the nominative singular case, and if it is proposed as a Latin or
latinized word, then it must obey Latin grammar. Latin nouns are of masculine,
feminine, or neuter gender, most commonly ending in -us, -a, and -um, respec-
tively. However, there are many exceptions and it is always a good idea to con-
sult Botanical Latin ( Stearn, 1992 ) or a Latin dictionary.
Accordingly, a specific name must harmonize grammatically with its
generic name. If the name is given a Latin form, as is usual, then it is treated
as (1) an adjective or participle in the nominative singular; (2) a noun in the
nominative singular, treated as an appositive of the generic name; (3) a noun
in the genitive case, either singular or plural; or (4) an adjective that is used
as a substantive. Most specific names are intended to describe the species,
but some honor the discoverer of the specimens (not the author!), or indicate
the location, age, or formation of discovery.
Ichnospecies and ichnogenera are erected in similar but not identical ways.
Ichnospecies are sets of material that a researcher considers to be similar. For
each new ichnospecies, a type specimen (or in some cases more than one type
specimen) is designated, which can be consulted in case of any later questions
about identification. If many specimens of the same kind are preserved on a
slab, then it is a good idea to designate one as the holotype. If a later researcher
decides to split the original set of material into two ichnospecies, then the subset
including the type specimen retains the original ichnospecies name. As a rule,
this type specimen is deposited in a museum collection rather than retained by
the researcher, because material in personal collections has a high probability of
being lost. Historically, a great many type specimens were lost before this
lesson was learned.