DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17434752
title: TABLE 1 in Nomenclatural historians are kindly requested to respect the intent of the Code: " Nomenclatural parsimony " and the case of the Nose-horned Viper, Vipera ammodytes (Linnaeus, 1758)

description: TABLE 1. Nomenclatural and bibliographic consequences of the nomenclatural changes to the Vipera ammodytes complex proposed by Krecsák et al. (2024, 2025). Taxa are referred to by the proposed common name in Row 2 for consistency. The consequences of several alternative scenarios and their consequences are modelled, based on the analysis of 1146 past uses of subspecific trinomina in 819 publications: recognition or non-recognition of the Southern and Eastern Nose-horned Vipers as different subspecies; recognition of the Northwestern Nose-horned Viper as a separate species from the remainder; and recognition or non-recognition of the Transcaucasian Nose-horned Viper as a separate species. The number of affected uses (n) is the number of uses of the name that would become outdated by a change to the lowest taxonomic rank, either as a species or as a subspecies. Simple changes in rank, between species and subspecies, are not counted, since the remaining stable nomen ensures continuing information transferability (e.g., a change of V. a. meridionalis to V. meridionalis is not counted because meridionalis is the continuing lowest-rank nomen; a change from V. a. ammodytes to V. a illyrica is counted because the nomen of the lowest rank changes).
A. Established TaxonomynVipera ammodytes as a single speciesCommon name for ease of cross-referencingNorthwestern Nose-horned ViperSouthern Nose-horned ViperEastern Nose-horned ViperTranscaucasian Nose-horned ViperMain subspeciesV. a. ammodytes (Linnaeus, 1758)V. a. meridionalis Boulenger, 1903V. a. montandoni Boulenger, 1904V. a. transcaucasiana Boulenger, 1914Number of uses in literature608346192n/a0Alternative classificationsVipera a. meridionalisV. transcaucasiana192Northwestern Nose-horned Viper as a distinct species from other lineages, following Thanou et al. (2023) and Dufresnes et al. (2024)Southern, Eastern, and Transcaucasian Nose-horned Vipers considered different subspeciesV. ammodytesV. m. meridionalisV. meridionalis montandoniV. meridionalis transcaucasiana0B. Nomenclature following Krecsák et al. (2024)Vipera ammodytes as a single speciesSouthern and Eastern Nose-horned Vipers recognised as distinct subspecies, position of transcaucasiana openV. a. illyricaV. a. meridionalisV. a. ammodytesV. a. transcaucasiana or V. transcaucasiana795Southern and Eastern Nose-horned Vipers lumped into a single subspecies, position of transcaucasiana openV. a. illyricaV. a. ammodytesV. a. ammodytesV. a. transcaucasiana or V. transcaucasiana1146Northwestern Nose-horned Viper as a distinct species from other lineages, following Thanou et al. (2023)Southern, Eastern, and Transcaucasian Nose-horned Vipers recognised as distinct subspeciesV. illyricaV. a. meridionalisV. a. ammodytesV. a. transcaucasiana or V. transcaucasiana795
description: Published as part of Wüster, Wolfgang, Böhme, Wolfgang, Denzer, Wolfgang & Kaiser, Hinrich, 2025, Nomenclatural historians are kindly requested to respect the intent of the Code: " Nomenclatural parsimony " and the case of the Nose-horned Viper, Vipera ammodytes (Linnaeus, 1758), pp. 389 in Zootaxa 5696 (3) on page 389, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5696.3.4, http://zenodo.org/record/17325081