Ferguson (1984) argued that many specimens in the Hadar assemblage do not fit the diagnosis for Australopithecus and should instead be moved to Homo. Rather than move the species to Homo afarensis Ferguson establishes Homo antiquus with 'Lucy', A.L. 288-1 as the holotype. However, Homo antiquus is preoccupied by Homo antiquus Adloff, 1908, for the Krapina 5 neanderthal skull, and thus Homo antiquus Ferguson, 1984 is a primary junior homonym.
Ferguson (2007) appealed to the ICZN for precedence over Adloff 1908 (case 3432), but the case was closed the following year with no opinion published. https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/107007#page/227/mode/1up. The notice states,
"The following Cases, for which receipts as new applications to the Commission were published though the cases were never published in full, are now closed:
Homo antiquus Ferguson, 1984 (Mammalia, hominidas): proposed precedence over “Homo antiquus Adloff, 1908”. W.W. Ferguson (Case 3432; acknowledgement of receipt published in BZN 64: 209)."
A possible explanation for the closure is that Ferguson may have based the appealed on the fact that Adloff, 1908 as cited in Campbell (1965) makes no mention of Homo antiquus. This is due to an error in Campbell (1965) where the wrong citation is listed. There are two publications for Adloff 1908, one is a short article in Anat. Anz. which is cited by Campbell (1965) but which does not contain the description of Homo antiquus. However, in that article Adloff mentions a book he published that same year (1908). That book, "Das Gebiss des Menschen und der Anthropomorphen Vergleichend-anatomische Untersuchungen Zugleich ein Beitrag zur menschlichen Stammgeschichte" contains the description for Homo antiquus. Thus, Adloff 1908 is the correct authorship for the name and has priority, but the correct citation is the book not the article.
