RE: Caenagnathiformes (toothlessness)

[NJPharris@aol.com]

In a message dated Wed, 30 Jan 2002  2:23:51 AM Eastern Standard Time, "Michael 
de Sosa" <ofsosa@uclink4.berkeley.edu> writes:

> "Recent jawless one". Riiiight... or maybe, he was trying to compare it to
> Recent hagfish* and lampreys ("Agnatha"). After all, Iguanodon is named
> after iguanas, Cetiosaurus is named after whales... That makes just as much
> sense as inventing the name "recent jawless one" for an isolated jaw. Then
> again, we have the whole Altispinax-named-after-a-tooth thing.
> 
> Regardless of what the literal Latin translation might yield, Sternberg's
> meaning is clear from his paper (in which he did not see fit to provide an
> etymology). He considered his Caenagnathus to be a bird more advanced than
> Hesperornis and Icthyornis... closer to "recent birds". It's not a misnomer
> like I previously said. Not quite, anyway.
> 
> This just in, I've decided that Carnotaurus actually means "fleshy southern
> tailless one".
> 
> carn- 'flesh'
> not- 'southern' (combined with the previous word to avoid duplication of the
> 'n')

Ah, interesting.  This is called "haplophony", and it does happen from time to 
time...

> a- 'not', 'without'
> -uros = 'tail'

Nope, that'd be "carnonotanurus":

carn- 'flesh'
-o- connector
not- 'southern'
an- 'not', 'without' (allomorph used before vowels)
ur- 'tail'
-os masc./fem. of compound adjectives

:-)

--Nick P.