Re: Saurus plurals

["Thomas R. Holtz, Jr." <th81@umail.umd.edu>]

At 07:12 PM 7/21/99 +0900, Raymond Thaddeus C. Ancog wrote:
>This does remind me, how come Horner chose _Maiasaura_ as opposed (and
>expected) to _Maiasaurus_? Is this a gender thing, or whatever?

Precisely.  Horner wanted a feminine name for the "good mother lizard", so
he used "-saura" rather than the (more traditional) "-saurus".  The "-saura"
suffix has now become something of a small tradition itself for ornithopods:
_Gasparinasaura_ and _Leaellynasaura_, as two examples.

                        Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
                        Vertebrate Paleontologist
Deptartment of Geology                  Director, Earth, Life & Time Program
University of Maryland                  College Park Scholars
College Park, MD  20742       
Webpage: http://www.geol.umd.edu        Phone:301-405-4084
Email:tholtz@geol.umd.edu               Fax:  301-314-9661