One name to rule them all:Belinurus trilobitoides(Buckland, ) is senior synonym to fourteen named species

Abstract

One of the oldest fossil horseshoe crabs figured in the literature isEntomolithus lunatusMartin, 1809, a Carboniferous species included in hisPetrificata Derbiensia. While the species has generally been included within the genusBelinurusBronn, 1839, it was recently used as the type species of the new genusParabelinurusLamsdell, 2020. However, recent investigation as to the appropriate authority forBelinurus(see Lamsdell and Clapham, 2021) revealed that all the names inPetrificata Derbiensiawere suppressed in Opinion 231 of the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (1954) for being consistently nonbinomial under Article 11.4 of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN) (International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature, 1999). Despite the validation of several species names for anthozoans, brachiopods, and cephalopods described inPetrificata Derbiensiain subsequent rulings (International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature, 1956a, b),Belinurus lunatushas not been the subject of any subsequent Commission ruling or opinion, and so its use inPetrificata Derbiensiaremains suppressed. TheBelinurus lunatusspecies name was used in several subsequent publications during the 1800s, none of which made the name available under ICZN article 11.5; Parkinson (1811) is also suppressed for being nonbinomial, while Woodward (1830), Buckland (1837), Bronn (1839), and Baily (1859) refer to the species only as a synonym ofBelinurus trilobitoides(Buckland, 1837) through citation to the suppressedPretificata Derbiensia. The first author to makeBelinurus lunatusan available name was Baldwin (1905), who used the name in reference to a new figured specimen from Sparth Bottoms, Rochdale, UK, but again as an explicit junior synonym ofBelinurus trilobitoides(Buckland, 1837). Therefore, it was not until Eller (1938) treatedB. lunatusas a distinct species fromB. trilobitoidesthatB. lunatusbecame an available name as per ICZN Article 11.6.1 under the authorship of Baldwin (1905) following ICZN Article 50.7.