Re: Early tetrapod Pederpes in new Nature issue

[NJPharris@aol.com]

In a message dated 7/3/02 2:08:23 PM Pacific Daylight Time, bh480@scn.org writes:


> Etymology. Pederpes, Peder after Peder Aspen, its 
> discoverer (Peder is the Norwegian form of Peter, which is 
> Greek for rock), and erpes (Greek for crawler)
, 

*herpes*, actually, but the /h/ disappears after a voiced consonant.

> that is, 'rock crawler' (Pederpes can also be split into Peder 
> and pes (foot), that is, 'rock foot').


Indeed, it's a triple pun, since it can also be split up into *ped-* (Latin for 'foot') and *herpes* (Greek for 'crawler'), to get 'foot crawler'.

--Nick P.