Naming Controversy
In 2007, paleontologists at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science in Albuquerque, New Mexico were accused of plagiarism in some of their published articles dealing with aetosaurs. In late 2006, the genus Rioarribasuchus was erected as a replacement name for "Desmatosuchus" chamaensis in the museum's bulletin. However, four years earlier paleontologist William Parker reassigned "D." chamaensis to the newly named genus Heliocanthus in an unpublished thesis. Because the name was not published, it was considered a nomen nudum until 2007 when it was described in the Journal of Systematic Palaeontology. The authors of the 2006 paper, Spencer G. Lucas, Adrian P. Hunt, and Justin A. Spielmann, were accused of "intellectual theft" by paleontologists Jeff Martz, Mike Taylor, Matt Wedel, and Darren Naish, who claimed that they knew that Parker was eventually going to redescribe the species and formally erect a new genus. According to Martz, Taylor, Wedel, and Naish, the authors rushed to publish their own name before Parker could publish his.
Another controversy occurred after Spielmann, Hunt, and Lucas published a 2006 paper mentioning that the holotype of Redondasuchus was not a left paramedian but a right one. In 2002, Martz came to the same conclusion in an unpublished thesis. He, along with Taylor, Wedel, and Naish, claimed that this was another form of plagiarism.
These allegations were brought to the attention of the Ethics Education Committee of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology (SVP) in 2007, and a response was given in 2008. In regard to Redondasuchus, the SVP found no plagiarism involved, while in the case of Heliocanthus and Rioarribasuchus, the SVP did not try to resolve the issue.
The entire controversy came to be known as "Aetogate", in reference to the famous Watergate scandal of the 1970s. It received wide attention from local Albuquerque newspapers and science blogs. It was also the focus of a news article in a 2008 issue of the journal Nature.
Read more about this topic: Aetosaurs
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