![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
How to Name a Dinosaur
28 Dec 2010 09:45David Orr's guest blog post in Scientific American is very cool, guys. If you've ever wondered how dinosaurs get some of their cryptic scientific names, or if you're like me and everything you know about Latin you learned from reading dinosaur books as a kid, there are some insightful explanations and fascinating tales in his post.
"One of my favorite mythologically themed dinosaur names of recent years is the brachiosaur Abydosaurus, whose skull was found with four cervical vertebrae near the Green River at Dinosaur National Monument. Its name refers to the town of Abydos in ancient Egypt, where the god Osiris' own head and neck were buried in the Nile. Instead of providing insight into the anatomy of the great beast it was given to, the name tells a story about its discovery millions of years after it walked."
Pretty cool, huh? I thought so. Go see more here: How to Name a Dinosaur.
Who knows, someday even you might stumble across a misplaced bone and have to come up with a name. Better have an idea of where to start!
"One of my favorite mythologically themed dinosaur names of recent years is the brachiosaur Abydosaurus, whose skull was found with four cervical vertebrae near the Green River at Dinosaur National Monument. Its name refers to the town of Abydos in ancient Egypt, where the god Osiris' own head and neck were buried in the Nile. Instead of providing insight into the anatomy of the great beast it was given to, the name tells a story about its discovery millions of years after it walked."
Pretty cool, huh? I thought so. Go see more here: How to Name a Dinosaur.
Who knows, someday even you might stumble across a misplaced bone and have to come up with a name. Better have an idea of where to start!
