| 7:22 AM (1 hour ago) | |||
Has the grammatical rigor of names dropped in the last 10-15 years? Seems like every few weeks someone on DML points out errors in new binomials. I wonder, is this a symptom of increased nomenclatural creativity (paleo is global and naming is taking that into account), less educational emphasis on classical languages (I never took Latin and neither did my classmates), or just less time/effort spent on getting names right (pressure to publish?)? Or perhaps people are just noticing errors more regularly?Â
Thomas Yazbeck
From: dinosaur-l-request@mymaillists.usc.edu <dinosaur-l-request@mymaillists.usc.edu> on behalf of Ethan Schoales <ethan.schoales@gmail.com>
Sent: Wednesday, December 23, 2020 3:25 AM
To: Nick Pharris <npharris@umich.edu>; dinosaur-l@usc.edu <dinosaur-l@usc.edu>
Subject: Re: [dinosaur] dinosaur-l Digest Tue, 22 Dec 2020ÂEven if the ICZN says "No, we will not remove the rule that says that grammatically incorrect names with non-obvious errors cannot be fixed from edition 5.0, it's here to stay, because allowing such changes would cause instability" we can still promote literacy in ancient languages as much as possible.
On Wed, Dec 23, 2020 at 3:17 AM Nick Pharris <npharris@umich.edu> wrote:
Indeed, Iâd happily ashcan *Oculudentavis*, *Limusaurus*, and *Sciurumimus*, too if I could.
You can see -aster in names like *Cotoneaster* âsimilar to *cotoneum*,â i.e. âquince-like.â
Since when did "aster" mean "similar"?
(If it Abitusavis were Abituavis, at least the first part of the compound is supposed to end in a u, unlike Oculudentavis, since it's fourth-declension rather than second-declension.)
On Wed, Dec 23, 2020 at 3:06 AM Nick Pharris <npharris@umich.edu> wrote:
Unlovely and/or wrongly formed:
Preposing simili- is a clunky way of trying to capture the meaning âsimilar to.â What happened to good old -oides (or the somewhat less common -aster)?
âAbitusavisâ is supposed to be derived from *abitus* âdepartureâ, but the -s in *abitus* isnât really part of the word: itâs a grammatical ending indicating case and number. If you really want âdeparture bird,â it would be *Abituavis*.What do you mean by that?
On Wed, Dec 23, 2020 at 1:10 AM Nick Pharris <npharris@umich.edu> wrote:
Mickey Mortimer wrote:
âJust as an example, I just checked Similiyanornis and Abitusavis that were described recently, and that's true for them. We would be losing a lot of names this way.â
No great loss, as far as those two are concerned. Ugh.
âNick Pharris
Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
Email:Âtholtz@umd.eduÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂ Phone: 301-405-4084
Principal Lecturer, Vertebrate Paleontology
Office: Geology 4106, 8000 Regents Dr., College Park MD 20742
Dept. of Geology, University of Maryland
http://www.geol.umd.edu/~tholtz/
Phone: 301-405-6965
Fax: 301-314-9661ÂÂÂÂÂÂ ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂ
Faculty Director, Science & Global Change Program, College Park Scholars
Office: Centreville 1216, 4243 Valley Dr., College Park MD 20742
http://www.geol.umd.edu/sgc
Fax: 301-314-9843
Mailing Address:ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂ Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂ ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂ ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂ Department of Geology
ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂ ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂ ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂ Building 237, Room 1117
ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂ 8000 Regents Drive
ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂ ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂ ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂ University of Maryland
ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂ ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂ ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂ College Park, MD 20742-4211 USA