Paleonet: holotype and paratypes

[Jozsef Palfy]

Dear Paleonetters,

I have been working on a project to compile a catalogue of type
specimens kept in the paleontological collection of our museum
(Hungarian Natural History Museum).

One of the common difficulties of this task is to decide on the status
of a specimen as a type, i.e. whether we deal with a holo-, para-, or
syntype (or lecto-, paralecto- and neotypes as appropriate).
Having consulted the ICZN (4th Edition, 2000, available online at
http://www.iczn.org/iczn/index.jsp), I realized that previous usage at
our museum may not have been quite the same as suggested by the Code. To
double-check if my reading of the sometimes rather heavy text of the
code is correct, I ask for help from the community.

Specifically, there are two issues where I’m a bit uncertain:

- Previously, we labelled a specimen as „holotype” if it is the sole
figured specimen of the new species in the original publication, even if
it is part of a type series that consists of additional specimens and
the author did not explicitly make a holotype designation in the text.
This seemed logical but I think the Code doesn’t recognize the original
of the illustration as a holotype fixed, thus in these cases I must
demote such specimens as mere syntypes. Is it correct?

- Previously, we only labelled a specimen as paratype if it was
explicitly stated by the author in the original description (and
labelled as such in the collection). However, I think the Code wants to
call paratype all members of a type series other than the designated
holotype, no explicit designation by the author is necessary. Hence,
e.g. if our author describes Phylloceras hungaricum n.sp., designates a
holotype for it, and in the Material section of the description states
that he has 203 specimens, the Code dictates that the other 202
specimens in our collections should be regarded paratypes, even if
nobody labelled them as such before. Is this correct?

Thanks for any comments, either on or off list.

Jozsef

-- 
Jozsef Palfy
Senior Research Scientist
Research Group for Paleontology
Hungarian Academy of Sciences-Hungarian Natural History Museum
POB 137, Budapest, H-1431 Hungary
Phone: +36 1 210-1075/ext. 2310 or +36 1 338 3905
Fax: +36 1 338 2728
E-mail: palfy at nhmus.hu
Web: www.pal.nhmus.hu/~palfy