Talk:1869 in paleontology

Taxa named in Seeley (1869)
Seeley (1869, xv) remarks that his taxa "are only intended for the convenience of students using the museum, and not necessarily to take ranks as names of described species", meaning that the taxa erected in his 1869 catalog, even though many are specified by type specimens, don't count as valid names under the current edition of the ICZN code. Interestingly, Seeley (1892) mentions the name Stereosaurus in his discussion of plesiosaur anatomy, while Gigantosaurus Seeley, 1869 is listed as a nomen manuscription in Blake (1875), suggesting that Seeley was working on a paper to describe Gigantosaurus as a new genus and species but never published it, and that he may have been planning to publish a manuscript describing Stereosaurus (which never happened). For its part, Cryptosaurus wasn't officially described as a new genus and species until Seeley (1875). As result of these technical circumstances, Stereosaurus was originally classified as plesiosaurian, but has gone unnoticed since Seeley (1869).

H.G. Seeley, 1869, Index to the Fossil Remains of Aves, Ornithosauria, and Reptilia from the Secondary System of Strata, arranged in the Woodwardian Museum of the University of Cambridge. III, Cambridge University Press

Seeley, H. G. (1875). "On the Femur of Cryptosaurus eumerus, Seeley, a Dinosaur from the Oxford Clay of Great Grandshen". Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society 31: 149–151.

Blake, J. F. 1875. On the Kimmeridge Clay of England. Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London, 31, 196-233.

H. G. Seeley. 1892. The Nature of the Shoulder Girdle and Clavicular Arch in Sauropterygia. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London 51:119-151 68.4.61.168 (talk) 01:10, 9 May 2012 (UTC)Vahe Demirjian