File talk:Paidopithex rhenanus femur Tübingen.jpg

File name

The original file name was “Rhenopithecus sp.” It well might be that in the museum the bone was labelled that way, but if so, it is highly likely that the application of that name is wrong. Reasons: Rhenopithecus is a genus from the Dinotherium sands (Upper Miocene) of the Mainz Basin (Germany). AFAIK there is no mention of a femur of that genus in the literature (and the design of the small label on the specimen suggests that it is in the collections since the early 20th century or even earlier – so it might not be a very recent find that post-dates the more recent literature, i.e. y2k+x). Paidopithex rhenanus also comes from the Dinotherium sands and its holotype is a femur that was found in exactly the same locality (Eppelsheim) as were remains of Rhenopithecus (a single canine). So there is not much doubt, that the femur in the image is the holotype of Paidopithex rhenanus POHL 1895. In the more recent literature this bone mostly is referred either to Paidopithex rhenanus, or to Dryopithecus. Since it is the holotype of Paidopithex, assignment to Rhenopithecus would imply that the two taxa are congeneric. According to the rules of zoological nomenclature, this common genus would have to be referred to as Paidopithex POHL 1895, not Rhenopithecus VON KOENIGSWALD 1956, because the name Paidopithex was coined earlier and therefore has priority over Rhenopithecus. Hence, I have moved the file from “Rhenopithecus sp.JPG” to “Paidopithex rhenanus femur Tübingen.JPG”. --Gretarsson (talk) 15:00, 5 August 2016 (UTC); last modified by --Gretarsson (talk) 22:19, 26 September 2016 (UTC)