Re: Dinosaurs Breathed Like Birds

[Tim Williams <twilliams_alpha@hotmail.com>]

Andrew Simpson wrote:

> Yes the fossilised bones were found in Utah but the animal itself lived 100 
> million years before Utah ever existed so I say that Ut@hraptor has never 
> been to Utah.

_Utahraptor_ never spoke Latin either, as far as we know.  Wouldn't that 
makes the 'raptor' part of the name anachronstic as well?

IMHO, I think you're being a tad harsh here.  A great many names are based 
on geographical localities, and although _Utahraptor_ could not have known 
that the part of the world where he (or she) lived would one day be called 
"Utah", the humans who discovered his (or her) fossilized remains certainly 
did.  And its us humans who name these organisms, both living and long-dead.

> I think that this beast deserves a better more discriptive title that 
> represents something fantastic
> about the largest Dromaeosaur yet found.

Wasn't _Achillobator_ around the same size as _Utahraptor_?

> (Not knowing what a Megaraptor really is. great name though)

_Megaraptor_ appears to be a basal tetanuran of some stripe.

> Demonraptor perhaps? I know Adaraptor means the same thing.

_Adasaurus_ is named after Ada, an evil spirit of Mongolian legend.

> The name should reflect how you would feel if one of them was actually 
> after you.

Perhaps you could petition the ICZN to this effect?  :-)

Cheers

Tim