Where does name "Paramesotriton" come from?

J

joonas

Guest
Does anyone know what name "Paramesotriton" means or where it comes from? I do understand end of it, "triton" (meaning "newt"), but how about beginning "parameso"? Latin/Greek is not my field, and I have missed the original description.


(Message edited by joonas on May 30, 2003)
 
Well, the question "What's in a name?" is also valid for quite some scientific names - I'd posit that the etymology of the name Paramesotriton is basically free from pertinent biological information:
para- (akin to, similar to, close to, altered)
meso- (middle, between, intermediate)
triton (scientific name used for Triturus up to the 20th century but already in prior use for marine snails)

Bourret (1934) described deloustali and also decided to place this species in a new genus - he proposed the name Mesotriton. However, he overlooked that this name had already been used by Bolkay in 1927 (as a subgenus; alpestris was later designated as the type species). This was noted by Chang (1935) and he proposed Paramesotriton as a replacement name for Mesotriton Bourret, 1934. Thus, the prefix para- was just added to Bourret's name to make it available (i.e. different from Mesotriton Bolkay, 1927).

So don't bother, a newt is still a newt by any other name... ;o)
 
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