How the media were conned ….
Australian Associated Press and other media outlets published the feel good news story of so-called scientists, Danielle Edwards and Mark Hutchinson “discovering” four new species of dragon lizard.
Being NAIDOC week, it was even better that they made a sop to the first Australians by giving the species Aboriginal names.
Problem was that it was a fake news story.
All four species that Edwards and Hutchinson were claiming to have discovered, had in fact been named by Australian scientist, Raymond Hoser three years ago!
Known better as the Snake Man, Raymond Hoser, is Australia’s foremost reptile expert and among the hundreds of Australian species Hoser has discovered and named were the exact same four species, Edwards and Hutchinson were falsely claiming to have discovered this week.
In science and zoology, there is a rule of priority and the first discoverer, as in the person who publishes first, is the one who gets naming rights on the species.
Furthermore as a species can only have one name, it is the oldest name that applies, if someone comes along later and has another go at naming the same thing.
To make sure there is no funny business, with people backdating priority claims (as had been done in years past), new names since 2012 must be registered with the governing body, the International Commission for Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN), via their repository called ZOOBANK.
This is similar to trademark registration and means that the correct names are applied to the relevant species and backdating publication dates is now pretty much a thing of the past.
As Edwards and Hutchinson in 2023 have effectively duplicated the work of Hoser in 2020, and effectively renamed the exact same species, their names must be junked and the correct Hoser ICZN names used.
The two have engaged in what is known as TAXONOMIC VANDALISM!
That is the reckless renaming of species that already have established names.
Edwards and Hutchinson never discovered the four species and the news outlets that reported this have all been conned. They should all correct their obvious misinformation!
For the record and in application of the ICZN rule of priority, the relevant species should be known as follows:
Ctenophorus tuniluki = Ctenophorus maryannmartinekae
Ctenophorus ibiri = Ctenophorus scottgranti
Ctenophorus cartiwarru = Ctenophorus scottyjamesi
Ctenophorus tjakalpa = Ctenophorus danielmani
To make sure it is not missed on anyone, it is a matter of public record that Raymond Hoser has given more reptile and frog species Aboriginal names than any other person in history and also in 2020 formally named a genus and species of frog in honour of Kumanjaya Walker, who was executed by NT Police Officer, Zachary Rolfe.
The original paper of Hoser in 2020 that formally named the four relevant species of dragon lizard can be downloaded in full from the web and is:
Hoser, R. T. 2020. A long overdue refinement of the taxonomy of the Mallee Dragon Complex Ctenophorus (Phthanodon) fordi (Storr, 1965) sensu lato with the formal descriptions of four new subspecies. Australasian Journal of Herpetology 43:41-49.
That was originally published in hard copy on 25 April 2020.
Further information can be found by calling 0412777211 (Australia).
16 June 2023 - Yet more new species of frog discovered in Melbourne and Victoria. ...
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