At 09:39 PM 7/20/99 -0400, Amado Narvaez wrote:
>Would the purists, however, prefer "hadrosaurids" rather
>than "hadrosaurs?" A few sentences later Currie writes: "If the
>hadrosaurs were indeed on a north-south migratory pattern, it is
>conceivable that tyrannosaurids were following the herds, picking off the
>young, weak, sick, and old individuals." Why is it proper to use the
>suffix "-id" with "tyrannosaur" but not with "hadrosaur"? Is that purely
>the writer's choice, or is there an actual usage rule? Would it have been
>acceptable to use "tyrannosaurs" instead of "tyrannosaurids"?)
Using the "-id" suffix is a little more formal, and a little more precise.
"Tyrannosaur" could refer to any member of Tyrannosauridae (or
Tyrannosauroidea or Tyrannosauria, should you use those terms), or simply to
a member of _Tyrannosaurus_, or even to just _Tyrannosaurus rex_;
"tyrannosaurid", however, specifies "a member of Tyrannosauridae". It would
still have been perfectly acceptable to use "tyrannosaurs" in that context,
though.
Stylistically, it is a bit odd to use both the least formal non"-id" form
"hadrosaur" and the slightly more technical "tyrannosaurid" in the same
sentence, but it isn't incorrect and neither is particularly wrong. (The
editors should have caught that, though. Or the peer reviewer for that
chapter: HE should have... oh, yeah... Never mind. :-)
In this particular case it isn't that significant. However, in the case of
writing non-technical literature on armored dinosaurs there is more of a
problem: if you decide not to use the "-id" form (as some kids' books
editors would prefer), then EITHER you have to refer to ankylosaurs,
nodosaurs, and their combined group ankylosaurians OR you can't distinguish
between Ankylosauridae and Nodosauridae.
Hope this helps.
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