Podocarpospermum, a replacement name for the Acmopyle-like ovule/seed Podospermum Banerji and Ghosh from Lower Cretaceous intertrappean beds of the Rajmahal Basin, India

Abstract

The generic name Podospermum was proposed by Banerji and Ghosh (2006). Cretaceous Research 27, 707–711, with the type species P. rajmahalensis, for dispersed, silicified, Acmopyle-like ovules/seeds having the characteristic features of the gymnosperm family Podocarpaceae. These were described from the Lower Cretaceous intertrappean beds of Sonajori, Rajmahal Basin, India. However, it has been drawn to our attention that the generic name Podospermum was published validly many years ago (de Candolle, 1805. In: Avec l’aide de Lamarck, Pyramus De Candolle publie une édition augmenée de la Flore françise 3.4, p. 61., in Lamarck and de Candolle, p. 61) as an angiosperm genus belonging to the family Asteraceae (see Farr et al., 1979. Index Nominum Genericorum (Plantarum). Regnum Vegetabile 100–102, 1–1896, and Index Nominum Genericorum, generic name index at www.nmnh.si.edu/ing/). According to the provisions of Article 53.1 of the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature (ICBN, Greuter et al., 2000. International Code of Botanical Nomenclature (St Louis Code), adopted by the Sixteenth International Botanical Congress, St Louis, Missouri, July–August 1999. Regnum Vegetabile 138 (Electronic version)), Podospermum Banerji and Ghosh is a later homonym of Podospermum A.P. de Candolle, and therefore an illegitimate name.