Spelling prehistoric animal names

[Takama]

Hi, am i the only one who has a hard time spelling the name various Prehistoric Creatures?

The following are my attempts to spell some common names without the aid of Google.

Dunklosteous

Qutzalcauatalus

Maiasaura

Desungugripturus?


How did i do?   Did i fail the test? Am i the only one who needs the occasional help to spell out a animals name?

[Halichoeres]

You got Maiasaura right! 

But hey, that's what Google is for. It's there to remember the things that we can't (or won't bother to) remember. The Internet is our collective extended memory.

[stargatedalek]

You got Maiasaura, and the other are close enough to tell what you meant. I'd give you an 8/10 if this was a contest

Dunkleosteus

Quetzalcoatlus (Quetzalcoatylus is a very common error, I'm guilty of this one)

Dsungaripterus

[tyrantqueen]

Hi, am i the only one who has a hard time spelling the name various Prehistoric Creatures?

Most of them I spell off the top of my head. Google for everything else.

[MLMjp]

I used to spell Nasutoceratops as Natsutoceratops or Natsuceratops.....

[Balaur]

I can accurately spell most names off the top of my head. However there are several that always confuse me, like Piatnitzkysaurus. Did I get that right?

[tyrantqueen]

A common one I see is "therapod" instead of theropod. Also, "Albertasaurus" instead of "Albertosaurus".

And the omnipresent "T.Rex", "T-Rex", and "TRex" instead of T.rex.

[Sim]

I've only just seen this thread!

@Balaur: Yeah, you got Piatnitzkysaurus right!

@tyrantqueen: Wouldn't the only correct spelling of that type be T. rex? (as opposed to T.rex)?

What's really odd is when a dinosaur genus name has been separated into two parts.  I've seen this kind of misspelling more than once in the form of "Utah raptor", "UtahRaptor", "MegaRaptor".  It should be Utahraptor / Megaraptor.

This is probably the best place to say that if I got paid £1 each time I saw Dan LoRusso's surname get misspelt I would have earned quite a bit by now!  I've seen "Lorusso", "LaRosso", "LaRusso"...

[Newt]

Breaking down names into their components makes them easier to spell, and to remember, in my experience. If you practice this with all names, you will soon recognize common elements like "onycho-", "cerato-", "caudo-", "dactylo-", "pachy-" and so on. Once you know how to spell that element in one name, you can spell it in any name.

Learning derivation and etymology can also help with spelling. Most names come from Latin and Greek, though it is increasingly common for names to come from other languages (and for them to not even be Latinized - for example, Quetzalcoatlus is Latinized from the Nahuatl name "Quetzalcoatl", but the more recent Dilong is just transliterated straight from Mandarin). In any case, it's a good idea to use Latin-English and Greek-English dictionaries (technically known as lexica) to look up parts of scientific names. There are free online lexica as well as (my preference) inexpensive printed ones.

Adjectives that end in "-ous" in English almost always end in "-us" or "-ox" in Latin. Scientific names will very rarely end in "-ous". Example: English "noxious", Latin "noxius"; English "ferocious", Latin "ferox".

Derivations:
Dunkleosteus - Dunkle (after American paleontologist David Dunkle) + osteus (Latin, "having to do with bones").

Quetzalcoatlus - quetzal (a tropical bird) + coatl (Nahuatl, "snake") + -us (Latin masculine ending).

Maiasaura - Maia (an ancient Greek goddess) + saura (feminine form of sauros, Greek, "lizard").

Dsungaripterus - Dsungar (also spelled Dzhungar, Junggar, Zunghar, etc. - a basin in northwestern China) + pterus (Latinized Greek, "wing").

I hope that helps!

[Sim]

When I was younger I thought Cryolophosaurus was spelt "Crylophosaurus", and Pelecanimimus was spelt "Pelicanimimus".  In the last year I've seen others misspell them like that.  It looks like I'm not the only one who thought they were spelt like that!   Another misspelling I've seen is "Citipatti" instead of "Citipati".

[tyrantqueen]

@tyrantqueen: Wouldn't the only correct spelling of that type be T. rex? (as opposed to T.rex)?

Yes, thank you for the correction

[Plasticbeast95]

I cannot spell most Chinese Dinosaur names! :Embarrassed

[Takama]

I cannot spell most Chinese Dinosaur names! :Embarrassed

Not evean Yee Chee? Oh wait just did misspell it  

[Plasticbeast95]

Never even heard of it...

[Patrx]

Aye, that'd be Yi qi, the zany scansoriopterygid with the membranous wings.

[Sim]

Most of the times I've seen people talk about Yi, they've used it's full species name, Yi qi.  I've never seen this done so often for any other animal except for Tyrannosaurus (Tyrannosaurus rex).  The qi in "Yi qi" is the equivalent of rex in "Tyrannosaurus rex", mongoliensis in "Velociraptor mongoliensis", etc..  It's not a misspelling but I wonder if there's finally another dinosaur in addition to T. rex that people like using the full name of, or if the full name is used because people don't realise the genus is just Yi?

[DinoToyForum]

Some names have alternative (erroneous) spellings that became established though mistakes, misuse or confusion in the scientific literature. For example:

Megaloceros (not Megalocerus or Megaceros)
Cryptoclidus (not Cryptocleidus)

I'm sure there are many such examples.

[Patrx]

Most of the times I've seen people talk about Yi, they've used it's full species name, Yi qi.  I've never seen this done so often for any other animal except for Tyrannosaurus (Tyrannosaurus rex).  The qi in "Yi qi" is the equivalent of rex in "Tyrannosaurus rex", mongoliensis in "Velociraptor mongoliensis", etc..  It's not a misspelling but I wonder if there's finally another dinosaur in addition to T. rex that people like using the full name of, or if the full name is used because people don't realise the genus is just Yi?

Hm, that's true, I haven't seen Yi referred to by genus alone very often. It happens a lot with the troodont Mei long as well. Perhaps people just find that the short genus names look odd without their specific epithets? People generally expect dinosaur names to be long, I think 

[Newt]

"Cryptoclidus" looks like an unjustified emendation to me, rather than a simple mistake - that is, somebody thought the original name was improperly spelled and "corrected" it. In this case, the Greek diphthong "ei" is changed to its usual Latinized spelling "i". There was long a similar issue with the (extant) snake genus Agkistrodon, which many workers "corrected" to Ancistrodon, which is the proper Latinization (but the rules of nomenclature don't require proper Latinization)! I think this was more of an issue several decades ago, before workers felt the iron fist of the ICZN close around them.

[Newt]

Most of the times I've seen people talk about Yi, they've used it's full species name, Yi qi.  I've never seen this done so often for any other animal except for Tyrannosaurus (Tyrannosaurus rex).  The qi in "Yi qi" is the equivalent of rex in "Tyrannosaurus rex", mongoliensis in "Velociraptor mongoliensis", etc..  It's not a misspelling but I wonder if there's finally another dinosaur in addition to T. rex that people like using the full name of, or if the full name is used because people don't realise the genus is just Yi?

This is a weird vertebrate paleontology thing. I guess it makes sense because so many dinosaur genera are monotypic, but it's still weird. Everyone else uses binomials when referring to species, even if the genus is monotypic.