StuKing94 Posted April 3, 2016 Share Posted April 3, 2016 (edited) Hi I'm new to collecting fossils and just recently bought a part of a Sarcosuchus jaw. On the website i bought it from Sarcosuchus had the letters SP next to it, i am just wondering what SP stands for as iv seen it next to other fossils aswell?, i know its probably a stupid question haha. Thanks in advanced. Edited April 3, 2016 by StuKing94 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FossilHunter99 Posted April 3, 2016 Share Posted April 3, 2016 Sp. stands for species, from what I've heard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wendell Ricketts Posted April 3, 2016 Share Posted April 3, 2016 Yes, it stands for "species." Sarcosuchus sp. (with Sarcosuchus always italicized) means that the specimen is identified to the level of genus, but not of species. 1 _________________________________ Wendell Ricketts Fossil News: The Journal of Avocational Paleontology http://fossilnews.org https://twitter.com/Fossil_News The "InvertebrateMe" blog http://invertebrateme.wordpress.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpc Posted April 3, 2016 Share Posted April 3, 2016 All animals have a two part name...as in Homo sapiens for humans. "Homo" is the genus and "sapiens" is the species. These Latin names are often italicized, as I just did, but that is more of a formality. With many fossils you can't always tell the species, so they will follow the genus name with "sp." In the case of Sarcosuchus, there are two species imperator and hartti. The seller was unable to ID it to species. But then is from Niger, and S. hartti is from Brazil, so ID to species should be confirmed by where the fossil is from. Did they tell you where it was from? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StuKing94 Posted April 3, 2016 Author Share Posted April 3, 2016 Yea its from Niger Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wendell Ricketts Posted April 3, 2016 Share Posted April 3, 2016 I'm just going to disagree slightly and say that properly formatting genus/species/subspecies names is not "just" a formality. Or, to put it another way, the correct way to do anything could, be seen as a "formality" if you've decided you aren't interested in the conventions of the field.Any style guide in any branch of life sciences, however, will tell you that these names are italicized, with the generic name capped and the species/subspecies not. There are also conventions regarding how authors' names should be indicated as well as the year in which the genus/species was first erected. In addition, there are all kinds of abbreviations that follow genus/species names (nov. sp., isp. nov, etc.) that provide useful information to the reader. There's no real reason for nonprofessionals not to learn and use these conventions. http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/science/paleobios/auth_guidelines.php http://blog.vancouvereditor.com/2011/03/science-writing-and-editing-scientific.html http://www.nwrc.usgs.gov/techrpt/sta15.pdf http://vertpaleo.org/Publications/Journal-of-Vertebrate-Paleontology/Information-for-Authors/Guide-to-manuscript-preparation.aspx W. 4 _________________________________ Wendell Ricketts Fossil News: The Journal of Avocational Paleontology http://fossilnews.org https://twitter.com/Fossil_News The "InvertebrateMe" blog http://invertebrateme.wordpress.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StuKing94 Posted April 3, 2016 Author Share Posted April 3, 2016 (edited) Thanks everyone for the information, i appreciate it. Edited April 3, 2016 by StuKing94 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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