Hardest to Pronounce Names

[Cretaceous Crab]

Which prehistoric critters do you think have the hardest to pronounce names?

Some I know off the bat are:

Vallibonavenatrix

Bistahieversor

Atopodentatus

[Abobo]

Dunkleosteus

[Shane]

Trying to find out how to pronounce a name is pretty difficult these days. Search any word and "pronunciation" in Google and you get a lot of dubious results that are just run through AI speech programs that give countless different answers.

The main thing to remember is - these names are essentially just made up, using mish-mashes of Greek and Latin, so is there a "real" way to pronounce them?

I have always struggled with "Macrauchenia". Is it Mack-roe like "backhoe", or Mack-row like "kapow"? Is it KEEN-ia or CHEEN-ia? I have heard it pronounced multiple ways in multiple videos.

Giganotosaurus is another one that seems to have a "jif or gif" situation going on. JIGGA-NOE-tosaurus or GIGGA-NOT-osaurus?

[Stegotyranno420]

If I cannot find a good English pronunciation, I just use the original language, or base it off similar words that have been anglicized.

@Cretaceous Crab
Those are the few that not only I cannot pronounce,  but also not spell.
Still trying to figure out Bisavihervseor

[ceratopsian]

Depends what you mean by "hardest to pronounce".  Are you asking which are the hardest to pronounce "correctly" - a discussion we've had before on the forum.  (In brief, the most important thing is to be clear and confident with whatever you choose to go with, and make sure the people you're speaking to understand you!) Or do you mean hardest to pronounce as in tongue-twisting / so many syllables that you always forget one or add one / odd sequences of consonants (for English speakers)?  For me Greek and Latin constructs trip off the tongue, and I can generally remember the name - I'm the sort of person you will find reading Sallust's Bellum Iugurthinum for fun on the tube.  But I can struggle getting my tongue round some names drawn from indigenous languages and I find them harder to remember, as the names for me are a random sequence of consonants and vowels the meaning of which is alien to me.  They take a lot more work to negotiate successfully!  For instance, Nqwebasaurus. Or Kholumolumo.

[Stegotyranno420]

Lets hope they never name dinosaurs in Georgian or any other languages from the Caucasuses. They have the record for consonant clusters.

[Libraraptor]

I always used to stumble upon Pachycephalosaurus. And I still do not know which syllable of Diplodocus to pronounce.

[Shane]

I always used to stumble upon Pachycephalosaurus. And I still do not know which syllable of Diplodocus to pronounce.

I've heard, from various sources, "Dip-PLOD-oh-cus", "Dip-low-DOE-kus", and "Dip-luh-DOCK-us". I think it's one of those cases where you just choose one and stick with it.

[TheCambrianCrusader]

Opisthocoelicaudia skarzynskii was the bane of my existence for years

[Stegotyranno420]

@TheCambrianCrusader
You know its hard when the Polish specific name is the easiest part

[DefinitelyNOTDilo]

Still trying to figure out Bisavihervseor

Given that it comes from the roots Bistahi and eversor I would assume that it would be pronounced Bihs-ta-hi-ehv-er-sor, tho I admit I've always tried to pronounce it as if it was spelled Bistaheviersor lol.

[Stegotyranno420]

In 4th or 6th grade I thought it was Bistahivenator 

[marisaura]

maip is another one where i've heard several different pronunciations! i say "my-eep" but i can't really tell if i'm right?

[DefinitelyNOTDilo]

To my knowledge that's correct.

[GojiraGuy1954]

Opisthocoelicaudia
Kyhytysuka

[Stegotyranno420]

*

[Crackington]

Growing up in the 70s with scant prehistoric documentaries or coverage of prehistoric names, we only had the few books which spelled them out to go on.

I often think when actually hearing the names said out loud, "ah, so that's how you pronounce it".

I recall on a trip to the Isle of Wight the blank look on a fossil tour leader's face when I asked him whether any "hype-sil-o-pho-don" remains had been found. Quickly correcting the first syllable to "hips" got the response required (which was  "no", btw  ).

[JohannesB]

Stegouros

Pronunciation: /ˈstɛɡəˌuːrɔs/

[Nanuqsaurus]

Futalognkosaurus, and the clade of Lognkosauria it belongs to. How am I supposed to pronounce the "gnk" sound?

[Cretaceous Crab]

Lol, I still recall when Parasaurolophus was so hard for everyone that even Michael Crichton just referred to them as hadrosaurs in the Jurassic Park books!

They even depicted its difficulty in the 1993 animated film "We're Back! A Dinosaur Story."