Rubus nikitinii Doweld, 2017

Doweld, Alexander B., 2017, New names of fossil Rubus (Rosaceae), Phytotaxa 326 (4), pp. 279-283 : 281

Rubus nikitinii Doweld , nom. nov.

Replaced name:— Rubus pygmaeus Nikitin (2007: 95 , pl. 10, figs. 41–46), nom. illeg. non Rubus pygmaeus Weihe & Nees ex Bluff & Fingerhuth (1825: 687) ( McNeill et al. 2012, Art. 53.1).

Type:—68–10/1, Стр.62–69–106 (Novosibirskgeologija, Novosibirsk, Russian Federation) – figured by Nikitin (2007: pl. 10, fig. 45(46)).

Geography:—Kochki village, Tomsk region, Russian Federation.

Stratigraphy:—Middle Miocene.

Status:—Fruits.

Eponymy:—In honour of Vadim Petrovich Nikitin, Russian (Soviet) palaeocarpologist and geologist, discoverer of the fossils.

IFPNI registration record:—FDB72262- F 9D4-448A-9 B 53-5 A 206344 FR.

Note:—The fossil-species Rubus pygmaeus Nikitin (2007: 95) was described on the basis of fossil fruits from middle Miocene sediments of Western Siberia (Kochki village, Tomsk region, Russian Federation) with no suggested affinity to the living species of Rubus . The miniature endocarps are very distinctive and have no direct analogues among extant species. However, it is a later homonym of the extant species Rubus pygmaeus Weihe & Nees ex Bluff & Fingerhuth (1825: 687) ( McNeill et al. 2012, Art. 53.1), and therefore, the fossil-species is renamed here as Rubus nikitinii Doweld , nom. nov. (in honour of its discoverer).