On 12/7/23 2:05 PM, erik simpson wrote:
> https://palaeo-electronica.org/content/current-in-press-articles/4017-fossil-plant-or-turtle
>
> An early Cretaceous fossil previously interpreted as plant (wrong on several counts; the plant was from much earlier) has turned out to be a hatchling turtle. The misidentifier made some other Kingdom-level mistakes as well.
>
> Is "Sphenophyllum colombianum" going to be the name of the turtle? Remember that Basilosaurus now recognized as an early whale.

Depends. Was Sphenophyllum an existing genus? (Though if I recall,
there's nothing in the rules preventing identical names between plant
and animal genera.) Is the turtle a previously described species or genus?

On 12/7/23 4:02 PM, erik simpson wrote:
> On Thursday, December 7, 2023 at 3:09:04 PM UTC-8, John Harshman wrote:
>> On 12/7/23 2:05 PM, erik simpson wrote:
>>> https://palaeo-electronica.org/content/current-in-press-articles/4017-fossil-plant-or-turtle
>>>
>>> An early Cretaceous fossil previously interpreted as plant (wrong on several counts; the plant was from much earlier) has turned out to be a hatchling turtle. The misidentifier made some other Kingdom-level mistakes as well.
>>>
>>> Is "Sphenophyllum colombianum" going to be the name of the turtle? Remember that Basilosaurus now recognized as an early whale.
>> Depends. Was Sphenophyllum an existing genus? (Though if I recall,
>> there's nothing in the rules preventing identical names between plant
>> and animal genera.) Is the turtle a previously described species or genus?
> Sphenophyllum existed much earlier. The turtle is "plausibly" Desmatochelys padillai.
> I would think the plant name will be dropped (in the case of the turtle).

Probably. Certainly if it's a junior synonym of Desmatochelys padilla.
If it's a new species it might end up as Desmatochelys colombianum.