Re: Caenagnathiformes (toothlessness)

["David Marjanovic" <david.marjanovic@gmx.at>]

>   *Caenagnathus* (see *Chirostenotes*) :: _caena-_ (Lat.) > _kainos_
> (Grk.) Recent, new [as in "ceno" in Cenozoic, oft times rendered
> Cainozoic] + _gnathos_ (Grk.) jaw [mandible].
>
>   Unfortunately, Sternberg did not offer a reason for his name and we are
> left with worrying about why "Recent" was the reason ... he most certainly
> knew it was Mesozoic at the time...

IMHO either the fossil was _a new fossil_ when he discovered it -- remember
all those paper titles like "A new dinosaur from...", and the recent cats
*Felis* and *Neofelis*. Or Sternberg implied that new birds (Neornithes) had
jaws of a new type, and that he had found such a "new jaw" in old layers for
which it should have been too new in shape.