[CPN] Article 21

[Philip Cantino]

Dear CPN members,

[Note: I thought I sent this message to the CPN on March 4 with a request for comments by March 13, but there has been response, so I suspect I did not actually send it.  The only part of the message that is changed is the last paragraph.  If you received this message before, please let me know.]

The final item of business related to the CBM proposal is the revision of Art. 21.  The main function of Article 21 is to provide recommendations on how to use species names governed by the rank-based codes in conjunction with clade names governed by the PhyloCode.  Although it is quite long, it consists mostly of Recommendations, Notes, and Examples.

The CBM proposal called for deletion of Art. 21 in its entirety on the grounds that "it is superfluous since the PhyloCode does not govern the establishment or precedence of any name in the rank-based codes."  While the second part of their statement is true, species names present a greater challenge than other rank-based names because of their binomial form and the fact that the genus portion of the binomial may or may not also be a clade name.  Article 21 helps guide PhyloCode users who want to combine species names with clade names in publications--something that I think many of us will want to do at one time or another.

Although the CPN did not support elimination of Art. 21 when we discussed it last year, several people suggested ways in which it could be simplified.  Some of those suggestions were adopted in the attached set of proposed modifications.  Among the proposed changes are the following:
Combining current Art. 21.3 (dealing with infraspecific taxon names) with Art 21.1 (dealing with species names).  
Eliminating the term "prenomen". 
Removing current Rec. 21.4C and its Notes because they adopt a particular species concept and they concern delimitation of taxa rather than naming.

Because this article is more complex than the last few items we've considered, I am anticipating that we will need more time for discussion.  Let's give ourselves ten days to discuss the proposed changes.  If discussion has ended by Monday, March 25, I'll call for a vote.  If the discussion is still active, we can extend it until everyone has had a chance to express their views.

Regards,
Phil







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