Re: -orum...

[Dinogeorge@aol.com]

In a message dated 98-09-13 12:05:15 EDT, padron@online.no writes:

<< What is the difference between -i endings in species names (e.g. U.
ostrommaysi) and 
 -orum endings (e.g. U. ostrommayosorum). I've seen that a very few Dinosaurs
named after 
 someone has got the -orum ending. The one I remember best is of course "J. 
 nedegoapeferkimorum". >>

"-orum" is masculine genitive plural ending as standardized by IZCN
"-arum" is feminine genitive plural likewise

If species epithet honors a single person, male, the standard ending is "-i"
If species epithet honors a single person, female, the standard ending is
"-ae"
If species epithet honors more than one person, at least one of whom is male,
standard ending is "-orum"
If species epithet honors more than one person, none of whom is male, standard
ending is "-arum"

If species epithet honors more than one person, but original author used "-i"
or "-ae" ending, this is incorrect original spelling and ICZN requires change
to "-orum" or "-arum" when error is discovered

So _Utahraptor ostrommaysi_ had to be respelled _Utahraptor ostrommaysorum_
because species epithet honors Ostrom and Mays

_Seismosaurus halli_ had to be respelled _Seismosaurus hallorum_ because
species epithet honors Mr. and Mrs. Hall

and so on.

Correct name of "Jurassosaurus nedegoapeferkimorum" is now _Tianchisaurus
nedegoapeferima_; species epithet is not a genitive but a "nonsense noun"
standing in apposition to the genus, so doesn't require genitive ending

Most famous dinosaur "appositive noun" type of species epithet is, of course,
_Tyrannosaurus rex_; here species epithet is not a nonsense noun, however