Talk:Scombridae
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
This article is part of WikiProject Fishes, an attempt to organise a detailed guide to all topics related to Fish taxa. To participate, you can edit the attached article, or contribute further at WikiProject Fishes. This project is an offshoot of the WikiProject Tree of Life |
| ??? | This article has not yet received a rating on the quality scale. |
| ??? | This article has not yet received a rating on the importance scale. |
Where is the common tunny, Orcynus thunnus? Evertype 10:27, 13 May 2006 (UTC)
- According to FishBase [1], that's an invalid synonym for Thunnus thynnus. Stan 22:47, 13 May 2006 (UTC)
- OK; I wanted to link from Phaistos Disc to that fish. The Oxford English Dictionary gives Orcynus... Out of interest, what makes it "invalid"? False identification? Evertype 09:37, 14 May 2006 (UTC)
- International Code of Zoological Nomenclature describes the general rules; don't know the specific story behind Orcynus. Stan 11:48, 14 May 2006 (UTC)
- OK; I wanted to link from Phaistos Disc to that fish. The Oxford English Dictionary gives Orcynus... Out of interest, what makes it "invalid"? False identification? Evertype 09:37, 14 May 2006 (UTC)
This name has an interesting history.
- The northern bluefin tuna was first described as Scomber thynnus Linnaeus, 1758.
- The albacore was first described as Scomber alalunga Cetti, 1777, and later as Scomber germo Lacépède, 1801.
- The large genus Scomber was split by Cuvier in 1816. He gave the albacore the name Orcynus germo and the northern bluefin tuna the name Thynnus thynnus.
- However, both these generic names were invalid: Orcynus having been used by Rafinesque in 1815 for a genus in Carangidae (a synonym of Scomberoides), and Thynnus by Fabricius in 1775 for a genus of wasps.
- The replacement name Thunnus for Thynnus was proposed by South in 1845.
- South also pointed out the synonymy of Scomber alalunga and Scomber germo, and that this fish belonged in Thunnus. Hence Thunnus alalunga for the albacore.
- According to FishBase [2], the combination Orcynus thunnus for the northern bluefin tuna was proposed by Poey in 1875, an invalid combination from the start.
So the name Orcynus thunnus is invalid because Orcynus Cuvier, 1816 is a junior homonym of Orcynus Rafinesque, 1815. Gdr 11:10, 23 May 2006 (UTC)
the link to the kawakawa is bogus, someone should fix it --Cheeseman1 19:51, 6 June 2006 (UTC)
