Re: [dinosaur] Coining names

["Yazbeck, Thomas" <yazbeckt@msu.edu>]

I personally like *Antarctosaurus*. Of course, it's best suited for a beast from Antarctica itself, though perhaps from the perspective of a Cretaceous animal the differences between South America and Antarctica are not very significant.

Incidentally, another example of the place-name mismatch in dinosaur taxonomy is *Magyarosaurus*, named by Nopcsa back when Transylvania was part of Hungary (now Romania).

Thomas Yazbeck

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From: dinosaur-l-request@mymaillists.usc.edu <dinosaur-l-request@mymaillists.usc.edu> on behalf of Tim Williams <tijawi@gmail.com>
Sent: Sunday, July 26, 2020 11:56 PM
To: dinosaur-l@usc.edu <dinosaur-l@usc.edu>
Subject: Re: [dinosaur] Coining names

 

This exchange is better suited to this thread...

Thomas Yazbeck <yazbeckt@msu.edu> wrote:

> I should say I wasn't making a negative judgement when I speculated a nationalist motivation for *Argentinosaurus*. Although it could never happen thanks to local geology, I would love to name a dinosaur after my proud home

> town or home state (Detroit, Michigan). But as Justin says, it's sort of a cheap way of getting a name. In my opinion, the best spot for a placename is in the specific epithet, which makes it a bit less awkward if a new species of,

> say, *Argentinosaurus* was discovered in Brazil or Mexico or something, and allows for more creativity in the generic epithet.

One of the dangers of naming a genus after the nation in which it was discovered is that national boundaries can sometimes change.  The only dinosaur genus I'm aware of this happening to is _Nipponosaurus_ (Nippon = Japan), discovered on Sakhalin Island - part of Japan at the time, but which changed hands after the Second World War (and is now part of the Russian Federation).

The genus name _Antarctosaurus_ sounds inappropriate - the dinosaur was found in Argentina, not Antarctica.  But the Antarcto- part is derived from anti(-), as in 'opposite', and -arctos, meaning 'north' - so _Antarctosaurus_ literally means "opposite-to-north lizard" (so essentially means "southern lizard").  Huene could have done better.

On Sun, Jul 26, 2020 at 10:56 AM Thomas Richard Holtz <tholtz@umd.edu> wrote:

Moving this to a new thread,

Thomas Yazbeck wrote:

>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?)

>I've never really heard a concise explanation of the taxonomic naming process, even when I studied paleo in college. 

Okay, firstly: exactly the same way ALL biologists do. :-)

(Let's keep in mind, paleontological names are just a subset of biological names.)

There is no single pathway. Names show up along the way: maybe early on, maybe late. Normally the authors talk among themselves, and maybe get outside suggestions.

In fact, many names get changed by suggestions of reviewers when the manuscript is submitted to a journal. A very well-known Jehol Group oviraptorosaur owes the final version of its genus name because I recognized that the proposed name was improperly formed, and I sought Ben Creisler's suggestion for a better version. Another well-known tyrannosaurid has a trivial nomen that I suggested because the original version was kind of boring and potentially misleading.

--

Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
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