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Re: Dinosaur names
You're right, of course -- it's pure provicialism on my part. Apologies.
(Mind you, there are plenty of English-based diosaur names that I hate
as well -- I am an equal-opportunities dinosaur-name hater :-)
2009/9/11 Manabu Sakamoto <m.sakamoto@bristol.ac.uk>:
> Hi all,
>
> I think this is the first time I post to this list...but something caught my
> attention. In response to Greg Paul and Mike Taylor's respective comments
> about unpronouncible dinosaur names, it is quite difficult for a lot of
> non-latin-based language speakers to even pronounce some of the established
> traditional dinosaur names (Eustreptospondylus is a mouthful already). I
> don't see why we can't name a few dinosaurs after some western Chinese city
> or some local Argentinian term or whatever?
>
> Manabu Sakamoto
>
> --------------------------------------
> M. Sakamoto, PhD
> Department of Earth Sciences,
> University of Bristol,
> Wills Memorial Building, Queen's Road,
> Bristol BS8 1RJ, UK
> M.Sakamoto@bristol.ac.uk
>
>
> Mike Taylor さんは書きました:
>>
>> 2009/9/11 <GSP1954@aol.com>:
>>
>>>
>>> I am very pleased to see the excellent work Michael has done to firmly
>>> elevate Giraffatitan to full genus status.
>>>
>>
>> Hi, Greg, thanks for your kind comments.
>>
>>
>>>
>>> I recently did a proverbial dope slap to the forehead when I realized
>>> that
>>> the Brachiosaur holotype dorsals have a very unusual medial rib
>>> articulation
>>> in which the parapophyses are set on strange goose neck peduncles not
>>> seen
>>> in other brachiosaurs or dinosaurs as far as I know. It is blazingly
>>> obvious
>>> yet no one noticed them over all the years.
>>>
>>
>> ... including me, in the new paper :-) That was a *headdesk* moment
>> for me, too, when you pointed it out. For anyone who isn't as
>> intimately familiar with Brachiosaurus altithorax dorsal vertebral
>> morphology as Greg, you may find the photos on these pages
>> illuminating:
>>
>>
>> http://svpow.wordpress.com/2007/10/11/brachiosaurus-altithorax-last-four-dorsals/
>> (look at the very bottom of the photo)
>>
>> http://svpow.wordpress.com/2008/07/17/mike-with-boba/
>> (look how wide apart the parapophyses are on the front vert)
>>
>> http://svpow.wordpress.com/2008/02/21/your-torso-is-also-pretty-lame/
>> (that's the parapophyseal facet right down at anteroventral corner of
>> the neural arch)
>>
>>
>>>
>>> Mike's skeletal restoration of ye old Brachiosaurus is good, the only
>>> thing
>>> I might change is that the anterior dorsals may have been a little more
>>> elevated. I recently modified my classic Giraffatitan to give it a
>>> straight
>>> dorsal series (as per the B. altithorax type) which further elevates the
>>> shoulders making it even more giraffe like.
>>>
>>
>> I'm finding it hard to visualise that -- is there an online image?
>>
>>
>>>
>>> It is good to se that Mike confirms
>>> the unusually small, rather mammalian tails of these brachiosaurs in
>>> contrast
>>> to some recent claims that they had more typically large sauropod caudal
>>> series.
>>>
>>
>> I missed that -- do you have a reference?
>>
>>
>>>
>>> One thing that is disconcerting is that the hip and tail usually
>>> applied to the Giraffatitan holotype presacrals and limb material to make
>>> a
>>> complete G. brancai may be a different taxon.
>>>
>>
>> ... or even some of the dorsal vertebrae might be from a different
>> taxon! (See pp. 800-801 of the new paper.)
>>
>>
>>>
>>> The one point where Mike errs is in the silly nonsense about Giraffatitan
>>> not being a fine name. Au contraire, it is perfectly apropos and superbly
>>> elegant like the animal itself, being the ideal title for the taxon, a
>>> name
>>> that cannot be improved upon.
>>>
>>
>> LOL!
>>
>> Sorry, Greg, I just don't see it :-)
>>
>>
>>>
>>> Brachiosaurus is nice enough but all it means is arm lizard, snort.
>>>
>>
>> It is true; the _meaning_ of Brachiosaurus is pretty darned lame. I
>> think it's more about all the glorious associations of the name
>> itself, rather than what it translates as. I guess that people felt
>> the same way about abandoning Brontosaurus for Apatosaurus (but at
>> least in this case the more euphonious name lives on alongside the
>> abomination).
>>
>>
>>>
>>> The run of the mill and
>>> over used saurus ending is avoided.
>>>
>>
>> You can have an AMEN for that, at least!
>>
>>
>>>
>>> It's a short and punchy appellation with
>>> nothing obscure about it, and it is easy to say Giraffatitan brancai
>>> unlike
>>> some of the crappy names coming out these days (can anyone actually
>>> pronounce Futalognkosaurus? Should anyone have to?).
>>>
>>
>> That one really is particularly unappealing; although Qiaowanlong
>> kangxii is also a bit of a mouthful. But never mind -- at least we
>> have the lyrical elegance of Xenoposeidon. (And I have a stonker of a
>> name all lined up and ready to go in an in-review ms., too.)
>>
>>
>>>
>>> I attribute Mike's peculiar
>>> failure in this regard to the diet on the British isles -- bangers and
>>> mash is
>>> fine fare but too much clogs up the cognition.
>>>
>>
>> "The deep-fried Mars bar is a symptom of a wider crisis" --
>> Nutritionist Ann Ralph, on the Scottish diet.
>>
>> I'd be the first to admit that traditional English food is hardly the
>> most exciting in the world. However, since the curry was adopted as
>> the national dish, I can't complain.
>>
>