Certain genus names are deliberate portmanteaus, such as _Archelon_
(archos + chelone) and _Spiclypeus_ (spica + clypeus)
Indeed, these are examples of haplology (deletion of a syllable when the following syllable begins with the same consonant), which is a semi-regular process in Greek.
Nick Pharris Sent from my iPhone David Marjanovic <david.marjanovic@gmx.at> wrote:Other examples include Confuciusornis, Xiphosura, etc., where for ease of pronunciation or clarity of etymology, a first noun is left unmodified with a grammatical ending intact with a consonant before a vowel.
Bad examples: neither ease of pronunciation nor clarity of etymology would be any worse in the expected forms "Confuciornis" and "Xiphura". These names were simply coined by people who â like practically all people on this planet
except the very few (and shrinking!) who've had a very, very peculiar kind of education â didn't know enough about Latin or Greek to even wonder whether they should ask someone who might know better.
Yes, this is what it boils down to. In these situations it would beuseful to consult someone who is familiar with the grammaticalconventions of Greek or Latin. Many 'bad' genus names are based on alack of understanding of how the compound name *should* be formed,based on the original language(s). I'd say this is the case for_Confuciusornis_, as well as many other dinosaur genera (e.g._Eousdryosaurus_, _Gigantspinosaurus_, _Notatesseraeraptor_,_Aberratiodontus_, _Alethoalaornis_ etc etc - I could go on, but it'sdepressing).Certain genus names are deliberate portmanteaus, such as _Archelon_(archos + chelone) and _Spiclypeus_ (spica + clypeus); so for theseexamples the improper formations are deliberate (and also inventive),to make the names more euphonic. So they are totally different tothose names in which the first noun is left unmodified (such as_Confuciusornis_).
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