Not to get too off topic, but I am curious, how *do* paleontologists create names? Are names decided on immediately when a specimen is suspected to be a new taxon? Are they done at the last minute or does the decision vary depending on who is involved
(e.g. do lead authors usually get the privilege of naming or can names be decided on collectively?)
Names are generally chosen by the authors of the paper. I fear that all too often this done precipitously and with little thought â one egregious example is that of discovering the world largest every terrestrial animal and thinking, "Well, we found it in Argentina, I guess we'll call it Argentinosaurus".
On the couple of occasions I've had the privilege of being involved in naming new dinosaurs, I and my co-authors have taken time to think through the possibilities and let them marinate. I don't recall that Xenoposeidon ever had any other provisional name, but Matt Wedel and I for some time referred to the animal now known as Brontomerus by the name "Anomalocedrus", being an anomalous sauropod (because of its enormous preacetabular blade) in the Cedar Mountain Formation. Neither of us liked that name, and it served only as a placeholder until we could come up with something better. When we were working in the OMNH collections with Randy Irmis and Sarah Werning in 2007, we batted ideas around with them, too. As I recall, Randy had recently been involved in the description of Dromomeron, and that put us onto the "-meron" suffix referring to the thighs, From there is was a short step to "Brontomeron" for "thunder-thighs", and from there to Brontomerus, which we checked with someone who knows the ancient languages was acceptable. We're really happy with that name. It perfectly expresses the distinctive morphology of the animal (huge thigh muscles running down from the preacetabular blade), it has an obvious resonance with the much-loved name Brontosaurus (at that time considered invalid), and it's kinda funny.
-- Mike.