Re: dinosaur flatware

[pharrinj@PLU.edu]

On Wed, 10 Jan 1996, Karen Seo wrote:

<snip>
 
> Pragmatically speaking, the only way I can think of
> to achieve accurate matching of term to usage would be to rename the
> category scientifically called dinosaur to something else and leave the
> word dinosaur with the meaning that it has in everyday English.  In the
> meantime, any suggestions for how to meaningfully (to the average
> listener) refer to prehistoric reptile-like creatures would be most
> welcome.  At this point, dinosaur works really well and anything else
> tends to confuse/mislead most folks.  
> 
> I'm aware the word dinosaur is mis-used but ignorant of the correct
> usage.  So just for the record, what is the definition for "dinosaur"?
> 
> Thanks,
> Karen

The word "dinosaur" is often defined these days as archosaurs (a group 
including crocodiles, dinosaurs (including birds), and some other extinct 
groups) with limbs that work in a vertical plane, set directly under 
their bodies, rather than splayed out as in lizards and crocodiles.  
There are also some more technical features that define dinosaurs, but 
this definition will work for our purposes.

Here's what the rest of your animals actually are:

_Pteranodon_:  a pterosaur, not included in the classical definition of a 
dinosaur, but could be included with a little semantic adjustment.

Mosasaur:  one of a family of large, seagoing lizards, related to Komodo 
dragons and other monitor lizards.

Pliosaur, Plesiosaur:  subgroups of the Sauropterygia, a group probably 
most closely related to lizards among living animals.

Ichthyosaur:  a member of the Ichthyopterygia, a group (again, probably 
most closely related to lizards) that became very fishlike in form.

_Dimetrodon_:  a very early relative of mammals! (And about as far 
removed from a dinosaur as any non-amphibian land-living vertebrate can be!)

So I can actually say, quite literally, that if _Dimetrodon_ is a dinosaur, 
so am I!

     Nick Pharris
     Pacific Lutheran University
     Tacoma, WA