Re: DELTOPECTORAL CRESTS

[Ronald Orenstein <ornstn@home.com>]

At 12:35 PM 12/11/1998 +0000, you wrote:
>Tom Holtz wrote...
>
>> And exactly which groups of mammals HAVE big deltapectoral crests?
>
>Ornithorhynchids and talpids:) (That is.. platypi and moles, for 
>those of you who know zip about zoology).

And for those of you who know zip about etymology, "platypi" is incorrect.
The Greek/Latin "-pus" (foot) is either a fourth or fifth declension noun
(I forget which and I'm too lazy to check) and its plural is not -pi, but
-podes (as in antipodes).  A technically correct plural for words like
platypus or octopus would be, then, platypodes or octopodes.  Fowler's
Modern English Usage considers this pedantic, so the preferred plurals are
platypuses and octopuses.  "Hippopotami", though, is perfectly OK (as long
as you are talking about hippopotamuses, of course).

There.  Don't you feel enlightened?
--
Ronald I. Orenstein                           Phone: (905) 820-7886
International Wildlife Coalition              Fax/Modem: (905) 569-0116
1825 Shady Creek Court                 
Mississauga, Ontario, Canada L5L 3W2          mailto:ornstn@home.com