Depaulacoutoia, a replacement name for Paulacoutoia Cifelli, 1983, a preoccupied name

Abstract

A recent Internet search revealed the homonymy of the generic name Paulacoutoia, which was proposed by Cifelli (1983:3) for a South American didolodontid ‘condylarth’ of the Itaboraian South American Land Mammal Age (late Paleocene–early Eocene), whose type species P. protocenica was previously assigned by Paula Couto (1952) to Ernestokokenia Ameghino, 1901. This generic separation was confirmed by later studies (e.g., Cifelli, 1993; Gelfo, 2006, 2010; Gelfo and Sige,´ 2011). Notwithstanding, the name Paulacoutoia was erected previously by Purper (1979) for a Miocene ostracod (Crustacea) genus (see Thompson Reuters, 2008; Global Name Index, 2010). Currently, Paulacoutoia is a junior objective synonym of the ostracod genus Cyprideis Jones, 1857 (see Munoz-Torres et al., ˜ 1998; Whatley et al., 1998). Because the generic name Paulacoutoia is preoccupied, according to Articles 52, 53, and 60 of the current edition of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (1999), the name of the extinct didolodontid becomes a junior homonym, and it must be rejected and replaced.