Filicites SCHLOTHEIM ex BRONGNIART

Cleal, Christopher J. & Thomas, Barry A., 2018, Nomenclatural Status Of The Palaeobotanical “ Artificial Taxa ” Established In Brongniart’S 1822 “ Classification ” Paper, Fossil Imprint 74 (1 - 2), pp. 9-28 : 17

Filicites SCHLOTHEIM ex BRONGNIART nom. utique rej.

1820 Filicites SCHLOTHEIM , p. 403. (nom. inval.).

1822a Filicites BRONGNIART , p. 209 (nom. utique rej.).

Ty p e. Filicites (sect. Pecopteris) penniformis BRONGNIART, 1822a, p. 233 , pl. 2, fig. 3 (original spelling “ pennaeformis ” – see ICN, Art. 60.8); type designated by Doweld (2012); Loc.: Middle Pennsylvanian Series, Dudweiler, near Saarbrücken, Germany (vide Brongniart 1836: 345).

D i a g n o s i s. “Fronde dispose dans un même plan, symétrique, nervures secondaires simples, dichotomes ou rarement anastomosées.”

D i s c u s s i o n. Following Schlotheim (1820), Brongniart (1822a) used this name for all fern-like fronds that could not be attributed to a living genus. Brongniart divided it into a series of sections or subgenera based mainly on pinnule shape and venation, which Sternberg (1825) subsequently raised in rank to genera (accepted by Brongniart 1828a); it is as fossil-genera that they are normally used today. However, Filicites remained a legitimate name and had the potential to interfere with the currently accepted nomenclature. Doweld (2012) designated the holotype of Filicites (sect. Pecopteris) penniformis as the type of Filicites and then proposed that the generic name Pecopteris should be conserved over Filicites . Cleal (2012) instead proposed the simpler solution that Filicites should be supressed: this was supported by the IAPT Fossil Plant Committee and eventually accepted by the 2017 International Botanical Congress at Shenzen.