Conserved Name - Zoology

Zoology

For zoology, the term "conserved name", rather than nomen conservandum, is used in the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, although informally both terms are used interchangeably.

In the glossary of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (the Code for names of animals, one of several Nomenclature Codes), this definition is given:

conserved name

A name otherwise unavailable or invalid that the Commission, by the use of its plenary power, has enabled to be used as a valid name by removal of the known obstacles to such use.

This is a more generalized definition than the one for nomen protectum, which is specifically a conserved name that is either a junior synonym or homonym, and would therefore ordinarily be considered invalid.

An example of a conserved name, one that is also a nomen protectum, is the dinosaur genus name Pachycephalosaurus, which was formally described in 1943. Later, Tylosteus (which was formally described in 1872) was found to be the same genus as Pachycephalosaurus (a synonym). By the usual rules, the genus Tylosteus has precedence and would normally be the correct name. But the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN) ruled that the name Pachycephalosaurus was to be given precedence and treated as the valid name, because it was in more common use and better known to scientists.

The ICZN's procedural details are different from those in botany, but the basic operating principle is the same, with petitions submitted for review by the Commission.