The document that is not there

Zoological nomenclature, the essential tool for exchanging information about the animal world, cannot depart from the principles of universality and stability fixed in the Code as its aim and pursued through the application of rules stemming from the principles of publication, typification and priority. To enforce these rules, we need to preserve and critically evaluate the whole record of publications (and associated specimens) available thus far. Attemps to erase part of this record or to dismiss names or documents as contrary to principles that have nothing to do with the scientific names of animals are increasingly widespread and even creep into a major repository of bibliographic record as the Biodiversity Heritage Library. This trend must be promptly rebutted.