Re: Abberatiodontus (was Re: Horner and Goodwin on Triceratops)

[Nick Pharris <npharris@umich.edu>]

Quoting Tim Williams <twilliams_alpha@hotmail.com>:

> David Marjanovic wrote:
>
> > I just discovered Art. 29.4.2 which says we are not stuck with any 
> > of these examples, so as soon as someone publishes 
> > Aberratiodontidae, Gansuidae and Yandangornithidae, we can use those
>
> That's a relief.
>
> > We are, however, almost certainly stuck with *Aberratiodontus*, 
> > which should be *Aberratidens* or something... or perhaps 
> > *Aberratodus* if we insist on having the tooth in Greek...
>
> ...the whole tooth, and nothing but the tooth.  I can live with 
> _Aberratiodontus_, given that there are plenty of zoological names 
> that end in -dontus, e.g., _Heterodontus_ (shark), _Xiphodontus_ 
> (beetle), and so on.  Also, -dontus is a common suffix for conodont 
> genera.

Yes, the *odontos* part is OK, Greekwise.  If I remember correctly, 
it's actually an adjective, *X-odontos* meaning 'X-toothed, having X 
type of teeth', as opposed to *X-odon* or *X-odus*, which would be a 
nominal compound meaning literally 'X-tooth' (*odÓn* and *odóus* are 
Ionic and Attic dialect forms, respectively, of the Greek word for 
'tooth'; the stem, in both dialects, is *odont-*).

--
Nick Pharris
Department of Linguistics
University of Michigan

"Creativity is the sudden cessation of stupidity."
    --Edwin H. Land