Re: Erliansaurus etymology

["Mortensen, Bruce" <bruce_mortensen@Affymax.com>]

>   *Erliansaurus* derives from Erlian, a township in the southern Gobi 
> Desert,

That's the same as Iren [Dabasu], right?

> Nei Monggol

Menggu.

> *E. bellamanus* derives from _bella_, Latin for beautiful,

Actually... in classical Latin, that's just "pretty". But Sereno et al.
didn't know that either.
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A point of correction:   Erliansaurus is named after the town that
appears on English maps as Erenhot, which in Chinese is called Erlian.
The town is a short drive away from Iren Dabasu, but they are most
definitely not the same place.   Both are in the Inner Mongolian
Autonomous Region (IMAR) of China, and there are a number of localities
in the area that have produced interesting fossils.   I was there in '99
and saw the as then undescribed Erliansaurus as a collection of bones on
a shelf in Dr. Tan's prep lab in Hohhot (pronounced Hoo-heh-how-teh by
my Chinese friends), and am very pleased that it has finally been
published.

Bruce