Talk:C. niger

Canis niger

MSW3 speaks of a "Canis niger" only specifically to say that it is not valid. I tried to find out what it referred to by using Google. It seems to have referred to Canis rufus. Please help me and all users trying to use this page to figured out what "Canis niger" had referred to. Chrisrus (talk) 01:35, 30 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

"Canis niger" was an alternate Linnaean name that had been proposed for the species known as canis rufus. Because of the rules of precedence -- "canis rufus" came first -- "canis niger" is an alternate name instead of the primary name. Got it? DS (talk) 20:03, 28 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Got it. But can we cite it? Because it needs to be added to this article. Chrisrus (talk) 06:33, 29 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

No. Lupus niger Bartram, 1791 precedes Canis lupus var. rufus Audubon & Bachman, 1851. The works of Bartram were rejected by the ICZN in 1957 (Opinion 447), though, and niger is thus an invalid name. Depending on authority and number of subspecies of wolf/red wolf recognized, it has been associated with rufus, floridanus and monstrabilis. W. Christopher Wozencraft in Mammal Species of the World (3rd ed., 2005, p. 576) assigned it to monstrabilis. Whund (talk) 09:55, 29 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

What does "no" mean in this context? You've just cited this fact very well: the page is accurate as written with regard to one meaning of "C. niger". Thanks! Chrisrus (talk) 23:13, 29 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]