RE: Albertaceratops (simpson's bi-annual b*tch about dino naming)

["Thomas R. Holtz, Jr." <tholtz@geol.umd.edu>]

> From: owner-DINOSAUR@usc.edu [mailto:owner-DINOSAUR@usc.edu]On Behalf Of
> Tim Williams
>
>
> But if what you say is true (and
> you know much more about such things than I do), there is no etymological
> requirement for the genders to match within a genus name.  In other words,
> it's just a convention, adopted more for imaginative effect than proper
> Latinization.
>
Precisely: it is a fashion, not a requirement. After all, paleontology went 
from the 1820s until the 1970s before the naming of a
"-saura". (Unless I'm forgetting of one before _Maiasaura_).

                Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
        Senior Lecturer, Vertebrate Paleontology
Department of Geology           Director, Earth, Life & Time Program
University of Maryland          College Park Scholars
        Mailing Address:
                Building 237, Room 1117
                College Park, MD  20742

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