Taxonomic Vandalism by Jane Melville and her gang of thieves
Dear all, it is appropriate that I draw attention to another case of unneccessary creation of synonyms in herpetology by members of Wolfgang Wuster's group this week. This is known as taxonomic vandalism. Tropicagama Melville et al. 2018 is a junior synonym of Melvillesaurea Hoser, 2015 (same type species). Lophognathus horneri Melville et al. 2018 is a junior synonym of Lophognathus wellingtoni Hoser, 2015, being a population of lizards previously treated as the species L. gilberti (from WA). The earlier names are of course the correct ones according to the rules of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature. The original paper by Hoser is here: http://www.smuggled.com/issue-30-pages-37-64.pdf The most recent case of taxonomic vandalism is here: https://museumsvictoria.com.au/media/7995/041-061_mmv77_melville_2_web.pdf