Say Goodbye to Kronosaurus!

[Federreptil]

I read this thread with an increasing smile. Much of the commentary deals with the frustration of weak naming and the tragedy of losing a resonant and established name. Now, obviously, the greatest happiness for many paleontologists is when they get to give their find a new name. And many of these new names are not particularly unpresidential or well spoken. Some derivations are also very nerdy or slime the sponsor of the dig. No comparison to the probably planned marketing coup of a 'Tyrannosaurus Rex'. So if the beauty of the name should be criterion for the admissible current state of science, then there would still be some work to do in the marketing of the naming ;-)

On the other hand, many facts, classifications and attributions in paleontology are always only an intermediate state and thus change is possible at any time, if new finds, models or theories change the point of view. Therefore it is worth to wait and to conserve cherished views. Maybe they will come back in a slightly changed form (see Brontosaurus). Or one finds a bunch of upright rebels who resist the mainstream (the birds are not a dinosaur faction), with whom one feels at home. Besides, science is not a one-way street with a single opinion after all. But a cloud of conflicting arguments, which grows just at the contradiction.

So no need to get excited. It is actually just scientific business as usual.