Re: Unenlagia and Sinornithosaurus

[bh480@scn.org]

To: dinosaur@usc.edu
From: Ben Creisler bh480@scn.org
Re: Unenlagia and Sinornithosaurus

After a bit of pondering, I gave the pronunciation as oon-
en-LAHG-ee-a (See 
<http://www.dinosauria.com/cronraptor/cgi/a5.pl?
u/unenlagia.au> ). A good case could be made for oon-yen-
LAHG-ee-uh, though, with a palatalized "n"--I don't recall 
why I didn't use it, but it seems to me a pronunciation 
for the name was in the media. New Latin  names ending in -
ia are accented on the antepenultimate (before-next-to-
last), thus the accent should be on LAHG. As far as the 
Spanish  palatalized "n" goes in names taken from Native 
American languages,  Zuniceratops could be pronounced  ZOO-
nyee, but the conventional English pronunciation ZOO-nee 
is the one that people seem to be using.

The ABC article about Sinornithosaurus 
(http://abcnews.go.com/sections/science/DailyNews/dinofeath
ers990916.html) quotes Larry Martin, who claims (again!) 
the feather-like fibers are only subcutaneous connective 
tissue. He says he wants to see fossils of lizards and 
other critters from Liaoning in case they show 
similar "feathers"--proving that the halos are not 
external integument. It is my understanding, though, that 
the Chinese have found fossils of lizards and other small 
beasties from Liaoning that do NOT show a halo of feather-
like integument. Some of these discoveries have not been 
widely discussed in the West, but include a weird long-
necked aquatic diapsid (choristoderan?) as I recall. 
Anyone have more info?