RE: Pterosaur diversity (was: Re: Waimanu)

[Nick Pharris <npharris@umich.edu>]

Quoting John Scanlon <riversleigh@outbackatisa.com.au>:

> >   We should be thankful that Makovicky named the taxon Leptoceratopidae,
> > the
> > first Latin-grammatically-correct ceratopsian "family" clade name to date.
>
> Hmm... well, as the name Leptoceratops is formed entirely from Greek roots
> including 'ops' [face] (the stem of which is 'opsi'), Mackovicky has
> actually been the first to get it WRONG. When borrowed into Latin, the Greek
> word 'ops' would normally become 'opsis' (e.g. synopsis, borrowed by English
> via Latin), so I don't know why anyone has ever assumed the stem in
> ceratopsian names was '-op'.

It is *op-* 'face', from the same Indo-European root *H3ekw- as English 
*eye*, German *Auge*, Slavic *oko*, Latin *oculus*, and so on.  
*Op-si-s* contains an additional (Greek) abstract-noun suffix *-si-*.

Now if someone would get out there and name the genera *Ceratopsis*, 
*Protoceratopsis*, and *Leptoceratopsis*, on which the families 
Ceratopsidae, Protoceratopsidae, and Leptoceratopsidae could be based, 
we'd be in good shape.

--
Nick Pharris
Department of Linguistics
University of Michigan

"Creativity is the sudden cessation of stupidity."
    --Edwin H. Land