Modern binominal nomenclature in taxonomy was  introduced by Linnaeus in 1753, in order to simplify the pre-existing polynomial nomenclature and to identify each species with a meaningful, unambiguous and stable name. Today, each described animal has a scientific name, assigned following the strict rules agreed internationally in the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (IZCN). In short, each animal species is identified by a generic name, a specific name (followed, when needed, by a subspecific name), by the name of the first author to identify the species, and finally by the date of identification.

Discovering a new species, assigning it to a genus and describing it is challenging. Even more daunting is identifying the original authorship for a species. This is particularly true for species that were described several centuries ago, in a time in which information did not spread as rapidly as today.

In a short note that has recently been published in Acta Herpetologica, Dr. W. Denzer traces back the origin of the name of the Sardinian scincid lizard. Based on the 13th edition of the Linnaeus Systema Naturae edited by Gmelin in 1789, the species has long been known as Chalcides ocellatus tiligugu (Gmelin, 1789). However, an in-depth exploration of the literature led to the discovery of a pre-existing publication by Herman dating back to 1783, which referred to Lacerta tiligugu, a species previously described in the volume “Anfibi e pesci di Sardegna”, published by Cetti in 1777.

According to the IZCN code, Cetti cannot be considered the author of the species because he did not consistently use binominal nomenclature in his work. Herman’s publication, on the other hand, made the name nomenclaturally available: therefore, the authorship for the species should be attributed to Herman. In view of this, the current correct nomenclatural notation of the Sardinian scincid lizard is Chalcides ocellatus tiligugu (Herman, 1783).

Click here to read the full paper.

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