Validation of two familial nomina nuda of Amphibia Anura Annemarie Ohler & Alain Dubois Reptiles & Amphibiens, UMR 7205 OSEB, Systématique & Evolution, Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, 25 rue Cuvier, 75005 Paris, France <ohler@mnhn.fr>, <adubois@mnhn.fr> Two new familial nomina of Amphibia Anura were recently proposed by Pyron & Wiens (2011) without any ‘‘description or definition that states in words characters that are purported to differentiate the taxon’’, as required by the Code, and are therefore nomina nuda, unavailable in zoological nomenclature. They are here validated by the publication of diagnoses for the taxa they were meant at designating. This example is not the first one of its kind. It is once again reminded here that zoological nomenclature is regulated by a set of Rules and that under these Rules intensional ‘‘phylogenetic definitions’’ of nomina do not provide nomen- clatural availability. Like all other human enterprises, science is a process in which errors are normal and inevitable: nobody is perfect, and even the best ones can be wrong sometimes. However, as stressed by the apocryphal Latin phrase ‘‘Errare humanum est, perseverare diabolicum’’ (‘‘To err is human, to persevere diabolical’’), the persistent repetition in scientific publications of a mistake, after it has been corrected by others, tends to arouse doubts on the competence and the reliability of its authors, referees and/or editors. The scientific discipline of taxonomy requires Rules for the naming of the taxa it erects and recognizes. Such Rules are indispensable for unambiguous international communication between all the specialists of this discipline, and with all other biologists and with society as a whole. A very large majority of the zootaxonomists active nowadays worldwide follow the Rules of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (Anonymous, 1999; ‘‘the Code’’ below). The functioning of these Rules rests on a nomenclatural process in three steps: availability of nomina, allocation of nomina to taxa, and validity and correctness of nomina (Dubois, 2005, 2011). These three steps are largely independent and each of them implies several Principles and Rules. Ignorance of these Principles and Rules results at least in problems and may lead to real nomenclatural chaos, which is a nuisance for worldwide communication about the living organisms and can have dramatic practical consequences when matters of management and conservation of biodiversity are at stake. Correction of the nomenclatural mistakes in zoology results from an international collective homeostatic mechanism, not from the action of a special ‘‘board’’ or ‘‘committee’’: Alytes, 2012, 28 (3¢4): 162¢167.