Asterolepis Eichwald, 1840 sensu Agassiz (1844)

Downs, Jason P., Daeschler, Edward B., Lo, Nathanael, Carey, Emily N. & Shubin, Neil H., 2019, Asterolepis alticristata n. sp. (Antiarchi) from the Upper Devonian (Frasnian) of Nunavut, Canada, and a report on the antiarch diversity of the Fram Formation, Geodiversitas 41 (19), pp. 679-698 : 682

Genus Asterolepis Eichwald, 1840 sensu Agassiz (1844)

TYPE SPECIES. — Asterolepis ornata Eichwald, 1840 ( Eichwald 1840b), sensu Agassiz (1844); East Baltic area, Main Devonian Field, Gauja Formation, Middle Devonian (late Givetian).

REMARKS

Eichwald first proposed the name Asterolepis ornata in a November, 1839, letter to H. G. Bronn of Stuttgart. The letter was published sometime after April of the following year ( Eichwald 1840b) in the annual journal at which Bronn served as co-editor, Neues Jahrbuch für Mineralogie, Geognosie, Geologie und Petrekaften-Kunde. This reference has been mis- cited (e.g., Lyarskaja 1981; Upeniece 2011) as a publication of Neues Jahrbuch für Mineralogie, Geognosie, Geologie und Paläontologie, a title change for the journal that only occurred after Bronn’s death in 1862 and then continued through to 1942. In an earlier 1840 publication (published in April), Eichwald (1840a: 79) mentions, though misspells, “Astrolepis” but makes no formal proposal of the name and does not use the name of the type species, A. ornata. His casual use of the name “Astrolepis” here is likely due to his previously written, though not yet published, proposal of A. ornata in his letter to Bronn. The quirk of publication schedules means that the earlier Eichwald (1840a) publication, in Bulletin scientifique de l’Académie impériale des Sciences de Saint Petersbourg, is the first published occurrence of “Astrolepis,” though not of the type species name. This understanding reveals that the original spelling of Asterolepis is actually “Astrolepis.” However, considering the subsequent spelling’s prevailing (though not exclusive; see Murphy et al. 1976) usage and its common attribution to the publication containing the original spelling (e.g., Traquair 1888; Woodward 1891; Rohon 1899; Gross 1931, 1933; Karatajūte-Talimaa 1963; Lyarskaja 1981; Janvier & Villarroel 2000; Moloshnikov 2008; Newman & Den Blaauwen 2018), the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (Article 33.3.1) supports Asterolepis as a correct spelling.