Emiliania Sánchez, 1999 is not a homonym of Emiliania Hay and Mohler, 1967

Abstract

In the July issue of Journal of Paleontology, 84(4), Sánchez (2010) proposed the new genus name Emiliodonta for the Ordovician bivalve genus Emiliania Sánchez, 1999 because of assumed homonymy with Emiliania Hay and Mohler, 1967 (in Hay et al., 1967). The supposed senior name, the genus Emiliania Hay and Mohler, belongs to the coccolithophores, a group of unicellular eukaryotic algae, which have traditionally been treated as plants (e.g., Glaessner, 1945; Tappan, 1980; see also Green and Jordan, 1994; Andersen, 2004 for modern classification) and to which the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature (ICBN) applies. In the original description of Emiliania Hay and Molher the ICBN was used (Hay et al., 1967, p. 447) and the name was validly published under its rules. Animals such as the bivalve Emiliania Sánchez, 1999, in contrast, are treated under the International Code for Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN). Both codes are independent (ICBN, Principle I: Greuter et al., 1993, 2000; McNeill et al., 2006; ICZN Article 1: Ride et al., 1985, 1999), and therefore the same names (“homonyms” sensu lato) can coexist under different codes. Consequently, Emiliania Sánchez and Emiliania Hay and Molher are not homonyms in a taxonomic sense but are both legitimate names under the respective code. Furthermore, the name Emiliodonta Sánchez 2010 is superfluous and illegitimate, as “[…] the name of an animal taxon is not to be rejected merely because it is identical with the name of a taxon that is not animal.” (ICZN Article 1.4: Ride et al., 1999).