“Mostri Marini”: Constantine S. Rafinesque's names for three of Antonino Mongitore's Sicilian whales
In 1815, the naturalist Constantine Samuel Rafinesque (1783–1840) previewed three new species of cetaceans – Delphinus dalippus, Physeter urganantus and Oxypterus mongitori – that he intended to describe from Sicily based on illustrations in Antonino Mongitore's published work Della Sicilia ric...
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credinunivpr:10.3366/anh.2020.0659 2024-09-15T18:16:42+00:00 “Mostri Marini”: Constantine S. Rafinesque's names for three of Antonino Mongitore's Sicilian whales Woodman, Neal Mead, James G. McGowen, Michael R. 2020 http://dx.doi.org/10.3366/anh.2020.0659 https://www.euppublishing.com/doi/full-xml/10.3366/anh.2020.0659 en eng Edinburgh University Press https://www.euppublishing.com/customer-services/librarians/text-and-data-mining-tdm Archives of Natural History volume 47, issue 2, page 344-355 ISSN 0260-9541 1755-6260 journal-article 2020 credinunivpr https://doi.org/10.3366/anh.2020.0659 2024-08-22T04:08:54Z In 1815, the naturalist Constantine Samuel Rafinesque (1783–1840) previewed three new species of cetaceans – Delphinus dalippus, Physeter urganantus and Oxypterus mongitori – that he intended to describe from Sicily based on illustrations in Antonino Mongitore's published work Della Sicilia ricercata nelle cose più memorabili (1742–1743). Although formal descriptions of the three species were never published, Rafinesque's reference to Mongitore's illustrations made the names available by “indication”. The names, nonetheless, fell into obscurity, most likely a result of contemporary taxonomists' lack of access to Mongitore's work. Rafinesque's names remain relevant to the history of cetacean taxonomy, although they are no longer applicable. Moreover, the animals associated with these names add to the historical record of whale strandings in the Mediterranean. For these reasons, we studied the illustrations Rafinesque indicated for his cetaceans and reviewed Mongitore's accompanying text, which together provide sufficient distinctive characters that two of the three animals can be confidently identified with modern species, namely the sperm whale, Physeter catodon Linnaeus, 1758 , and the false killer whale, Pseudorca crassidens (Owen, 1846). Had Rafinesque's name D. dalippus been recognized for what it was, it would have had priority over P. crassidens as the earliest scientific name for the false killer whale. Article in Journal/Newspaper Killer Whale Sperm whale Edinburgh University Press Archives of Natural History 47 2 344 355 |
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English |
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In 1815, the naturalist Constantine Samuel Rafinesque (1783–1840) previewed three new species of cetaceans – Delphinus dalippus, Physeter urganantus and Oxypterus mongitori – that he intended to describe from Sicily based on illustrations in Antonino Mongitore's published work Della Sicilia ricercata nelle cose più memorabili (1742–1743). Although formal descriptions of the three species were never published, Rafinesque's reference to Mongitore's illustrations made the names available by “indication”. The names, nonetheless, fell into obscurity, most likely a result of contemporary taxonomists' lack of access to Mongitore's work. Rafinesque's names remain relevant to the history of cetacean taxonomy, although they are no longer applicable. Moreover, the animals associated with these names add to the historical record of whale strandings in the Mediterranean. For these reasons, we studied the illustrations Rafinesque indicated for his cetaceans and reviewed Mongitore's accompanying text, which together provide sufficient distinctive characters that two of the three animals can be confidently identified with modern species, namely the sperm whale, Physeter catodon Linnaeus, 1758 , and the false killer whale, Pseudorca crassidens (Owen, 1846). Had Rafinesque's name D. dalippus been recognized for what it was, it would have had priority over P. crassidens as the earliest scientific name for the false killer whale. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Woodman, Neal Mead, James G. McGowen, Michael R. |
spellingShingle |
Woodman, Neal Mead, James G. McGowen, Michael R. “Mostri Marini”: Constantine S. Rafinesque's names for three of Antonino Mongitore's Sicilian whales |
author_facet |
Woodman, Neal Mead, James G. McGowen, Michael R. |
author_sort |
Woodman, Neal |
title |
“Mostri Marini”: Constantine S. Rafinesque's names for three of Antonino Mongitore's Sicilian whales |
title_short |
“Mostri Marini”: Constantine S. Rafinesque's names for three of Antonino Mongitore's Sicilian whales |
title_full |
“Mostri Marini”: Constantine S. Rafinesque's names for three of Antonino Mongitore's Sicilian whales |
title_fullStr |
“Mostri Marini”: Constantine S. Rafinesque's names for three of Antonino Mongitore's Sicilian whales |
title_full_unstemmed |
“Mostri Marini”: Constantine S. Rafinesque's names for three of Antonino Mongitore's Sicilian whales |
title_sort |
“mostri marini”: constantine s. rafinesque's names for three of antonino mongitore's sicilian whales |
publisher |
Edinburgh University Press |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.3366/anh.2020.0659 https://www.euppublishing.com/doi/full-xml/10.3366/anh.2020.0659 |
genre |
Killer Whale Sperm whale |
genre_facet |
Killer Whale Sperm whale |
op_source |
Archives of Natural History volume 47, issue 2, page 344-355 ISSN 0260-9541 1755-6260 |
op_rights |
https://www.euppublishing.com/customer-services/librarians/text-and-data-mining-tdm |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3366/anh.2020.0659 |
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47 |
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2 |
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344 |
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355 |
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1810454713193201664 |