Science desk
< February 15	<< Jan \| February \| Mar >>	February 17 >

Welcome to the Wikipedia Science Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is a transcluded archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

February 16

Minor biology question

In Columnella, why are some of the discoverers(?) in brackets and some not? Clarityfiend (talk) 23:10, 16 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

The reason was entirely an accident of formatting, and entirely unrelated to anything scientific. I have amended the article to insert brackets in all places where they were missing. Dolphin (t) 23:48, 16 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks. So nothing juicy like being a member of the Illuminati or the Cabal? Clarityfiend (talk) 09:49, 17 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Not as far as you should know ;) --Jayron 32 13:16, 17 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

The name and date after a binomial name is a reference to the authorship and date of the publication that first formally described the species. The official convention is to put these in brackets if the species was first described in a different genus. See International Code of Zoological Nomenclature Article 51.3. I have reverted User:Dolphin51's change, so that the brackets now again match those in World Register of Marine Species. Jmchutchinson (talk) 10:10, 18 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Resolved

Clarityfiend (talk) 12:46, 19 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]