Palaeotetrix gilli (1 Viewer)

[Björn Bergenholtz]

One short question ... on the fossil bird (Dendragapus) "Palaeotetrix gilli" SHUFELDT 1892 (here).

Valid or invalid?

And if the latter, synonymous of what?

 

[Fred Ruhe]

Palaeotetrix gilli Shufeldt, 1891. is a Nomen Nudum.
But Palaeotetrix gilli Shufeldt, 1892, now Dendragapus gilli (Shufeldt, 1892) is as far as I know a valid species with holotype AMNH 3474 a right carpometacarpus, referred material UMMP 48233 complete carpometacarpus.
Jehl, 1967 made the new combination Dendragapus gilli (Shufeldt, 1892).

In 1969 Jehl even described the new subspecies Dendragapus gilli milleri Jehl, 1969 (Holotype UCMP 82977 a left carpometacarpus.

Etymology: the speciesname is named in honour Shufeldt's friend, Dr. Theodore Gill, the distinguished American naturalist and ichthyologist.

milleri is named after Alden Holmes Miller (4 feb 1906-9 oct 1965) (I suppose, I haven't seen the description), the famous paleornithologist from California.

The species is from the Late Pleistocene of North-America, California, Shasta County, Samwel Cave

Hope I answered your question,

Fred

 

[Fred Ruhe]

Correction

Well,

I found the description of Dendragapus gilli milleri and it is clear, I made some mistakes in my previous contribution:

1) the type locality of Palaeotetrix gilli Shufeldt, 1891 is Fossil Lake, Oregon.
2) Dendragapus gilli milleri is not named after Alden Holmes Miller, but after his father, Loye Holmes Miller (13 Oct 1874-6 Apr 1970), also a famous paleornithologist who first reported these fossils in 1911.
The type locality is from the Late Pleistocene of North-America, California, Shasta County, Samwel Cave.

Fred

 

[Björn Bergenholtz]

Thanks Fred, case like I expected! :t:

And thanks for adding the etymologies (even if I already had them)

However (despite the fact that there's no out-spoken dedication in the OD), I doubt milleri does commemorate the Mr Miller you suggested, even though "the late A. H. Miller" was mentioned by Jehl, in the Acknowledgements". To me "L. H. Miller" listed in the Literature Cited, is a more likely dedicatee. The latter "Miller (1911)" is also mentioned in the introduction of this paper. Mr "Loye Miller" [i.e. the American paleontologist and zoologist Loye Holmes Miller (18 October 1874 - 6 April 1970), professor of zoology at the University of California], was also mentioned on p.168 (bottom page) ...

Jehl J.R., 1969: Fossil grouse of the genus Dendragapus. Transactions of the San Diego Society of Natural History 15 (12): 165-174 (here) ... "Dendragapus gilli milleri" is found on p.173.

Either way, enjoy!

Björn

 

[Björn Bergenholtz]

Oups! Writing, typing away, posting, simultaneously ...

Luckily ending up with the same conclusions!

Thanks

Björn

PS. Even if we apparently got different birth dates of Mr Loye Miller.
--

 

[Fred Ruhe]

Sorry Björn,

The birth date of Loye Holmes Miller is as I wrote, October 18th 1874.

I checked it again in:

Holdegarde Howard, 1971

In Memoriam: Loye Holmes Miller

The Auk 88: 277-285

Free pdf https://sora.unm.edu/sites/default/files/journals/auk/v088n02/p0276-p0285.pdf

Hildegarde Howard was a student of Loye Holmes Miller and wrote some papers together with his son Alden Holmes Miller. She was a close friend of the family and I cannot imagine she is wrong about his birth date.

Fred

 

[Fred Ruhe]

Again, a stuped mistake:

This is what Hildegarde Howard wrote:

"Loye was born in Minden on October 13, 1874."

And also Holdegarde must of course be Hildegarde.

Sorry,

Fred

 

[Björn Bergenholtz]

A bit stressed up today, Fred !?

Either way I will leave milleri here and now, as it was gilli I was interested in (simply to exclude any possible connection to, alt. a typo of, "grilli").

I thereby leave milleri in your capable hands. I trust you´ll get it all correct when less busy.