Re: raptors, swinelizards and bearcrocs

[Pieter.Depuydt@rug.ac.be]

From:          Self <pdepuydt>
To:            m_troutman@hotmail.com
Subject:       raptors, swinelizards and bearcrocs
Date:          Thu, 21 Aug 1997 08:52:34

> Date:          Wed, 20 Aug 1997 14:55:00 PDT
> Reply-to:      m_troutman@hotmail.com
> From:          "Matthew Troutman" <m_troutman@hotmail.com>
> To:            dinosaur@usc.edu
> Subject:       T.rex and "raptors"

>  As far as I could trace T.rex first came into useage in the 1950s. 
> Source: old kiddy dino book. 
>  
>  On the subject of names the useage of "raptors" for dromaeosaurs was 
> first used by Dale Russel in AN ODDESEY IN TIME.
>  WMattTroutman

Russell also used the informal name 'bearcroc' for rauisuchians 
and poposaurids, 'owliguana' for rhynchosaurs and 'swinelizard' for 
gomphodont cynodonts, always between quotation marks. These words are 
neologisms which he created for strictly informal use in his book, 
after defining them with the exact scientific terminology. 'Raptor' 
on the other hand  is an already existing, scientific name, which 
denotes a whole different group of animals.

Pieter Depuydt