(2186) Proposal to conserve the name Coniopteris against Polystichites (fossil Pteridophyta, Protodicksoniales )

The genus Coniopteris was created on the basis of a section of the very artificial genus Pecopteris, P. sect. Sphenopteroides Brongn. (Hist. Veg. Foss. 1: 356. 1836 (‘Sphenopteroides’)): “ce genre ou cette ancienne section des Pecopteris” (Brongniart, l.c.: 1849: 75). When established by Brongniart in 1849, the new genus included the type of the name of the previously validly published monotypic genus Polystichites C. Presl (l.c.), P. murrayanus (Brongn.) C. Presl (‘murrayana’) (≡ Pecopteris murrayana Brongn.), and therefore it is a nomenclaturally superfluous, illegitimate name (Art. 52). According to the rules, Polystichites is the correct generic name for this group of fossil ferns. However, this name has rarely been employed in systematic palaeobotany only being mentioned several times in the 19th century in various geological and palaeontological treatises (Morris, Cat. Brit. Foss.: 19. 1843 & ed. 2: 18. 1854; Tennant, Stratigr. List Brit. Foss.: 66. 1847; Goppert in Bronn, Index. Palaeontol.: 1028. 1848; Bronn, Lethaea Geogn., ed. 3, 2(3, 4): 55. 1851; Phillips, Man. Geol.: 324. 1855). Since then Polystichites completely disappeared in botany and has been forgotten. In contrast, Brongniart’s generic name Coniopteris, once revised by Saporta (Pl. Jurass. 1: 285. 1873) and Schimper (Traite Paleontol. Veg. 1: 418. 1869 & 3: 469. 1874) so as to be restricted to Mesozoic forms only and hence become a natural group of fossils, became a widely known cosmopolitan fossil-genus consisting of more than 30 described species reported from nearly all Mesozoic floras worldwide, but mostly from Northern Hemisphere (Seward, Cat. Mesoz. Pl., Jurass. Fl. 1: 98. 1901 [‘1900’] & in Trudy Geol. Komit., ser. 2, 81: 20. 1912; Yokoyama in J. Coll. Sci. Imp. Univ. Tokyo 21(9): 35. 1906; Halle in Nordenskjold, Wiss. Ergebn. Schwed. Sudpolar.-Exped. 3(14): 21. 1913; Hirmer, Lehrb. Palaobot. 1: 638. 1927; Brick in Mater. Geol. Sredn. Azii 1: 6. 1933; Sze in Palaeontol. Sin. Ser. A, 4(1): 10. 1933; Prynada in Probl. Paleontol. 4: 373. 1938; Bell in Mem. Geol. Surv. Canada 285: 47. 1956; Harris, Yorkshire Jurass. Fl. 1: 141. 1961; Samylina in Trudy Bot. Inst. Akad. Nauk S.S.S.R., Ser. 8, Paleobotanika 5: 56. 1963; Herbst in Ameghiniana 4: 340. 1966; Kiritchkova & al., Fitostratigr. Fl. Jursk. Zap. Sibiri: 60. 2005; Taylor & al., Paleobotany: 688. 2009). The generic name Coniopteris, so widely used in modern systematic palaeobotany, should not be rejected for purely nomenclatural reasons. In order to stabilize palaeobotanical nomenclature in current use by legitimizing the use of Coniopteris, it is formally proposed to conserve Coniopteris Brongn. against the “nomen oblitum”, Polystichites C. Presl. The conservation of the generic name in current use will also make legitimate, according to new revised provisions (Art. 6.4, 18.3, 19.5) in the Melbourne Code (McNeill & al. in Regnum Veg. 154. 2012), the established, distinct, but currently illegitimate, subfamily name, Coniopteridoideae Maljavkina (in Trudy Vsesojuzn. Neft. Nauchno-Issl. Geol.-Razved. Inst. 231: 55, 56. 10 Aug 1964) that is based on Coniopteris. The precise date of publication in addition to those listed in Taxonomic Literature II has been found for the influential treatment of fossil plants by Brongniart that appeared in d’Orbigny’s Dictionnaire Universel de Histoire Naturelle from the date of national bibliographical registration in the weekly Bibliographie de la France 38: 329. 7 Jul 1849 (week for 30 Jun–7 Jul). Brongniart’s treatment of fossil plants from the dictionary, published with its own pagination as Tableau des genres de vegetaux fossiles, was reprinted later than the Dictionnaire as confirmed by its bibliographic registration in the weekly Bibliographie de la France 38: 462. 15 Sep 1849 (week for 8–15 Sep), and hence the citation of Brongniart’s taxonomic novelties is correctly from the earlier published Dictionnaire.