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Megapnosaurus?

Posted by michael on from the scientist-humor dept.

Spudley writes: "I was tempted to put this under the humor topic, but I guess it's best here in science. An entertaining article in USA Today tells of how a beetle expert arbitrarily changed the scientific name of a dinosaur from "Syntarsus" (Latin: "fused ankle") to "Megapnosaurus" (Latin: "big dead lizard"). Dinosaur experts are (understandably) kicking up quite a fuss about it."

29 comments

  1. At least give the original namers a chance by TrollMan+5000 · · Score: 1

    They weren't aware of the insect's name and unintentionally duplicated it. A notice shold be sent to the orignal individual or institution credited with the original name and allowed some time to rename it.

    Aithough it is quite funny, they are mocking an important field in science.

    1. Re:At least give the original namers a chance by cow+ninja · · Score: 1

      From the article:
      Ivie says he sent a letter to Raath's old address and never got a reply

      He did try to send him a notice.

    2. Re:At least give the original namers a chance by cei · · Score: 1

      What, you think WIPO should arbitrate?

      --
      This sig intentionally left justified.
  2. Taxonomy 101 by grundy · · Score: 1

    So class, remember to fill out those change of address forms...

  3. Dinosaur scientists should get a sense of humor by Violet+Null · · Score: 4, Insightful

    For those curious about why the renaming is being done by a beetle guy...

    Until now. Entomologist Michael Ivie of Montana State University in Bozeman, one of the scientists who noted that a beetle found in 1869 already had the name Syntarsus, sent a January corrective notice to the insect journal Insecta Mundi.

    Under the rules of scientific nomenclature, Ivie and his colleagues were entitled to rename Syntarsus, as the ones who caught the mistake.

    So you may not like the name. But the guy is following the rules. It's funny. Laugh.

  4. maybe more appropriate? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Since the Mega- prefix was deemed inappropriate, due to the dinosaur's relatively small 4.5 feet heighth, maybe micrapnosaurus would be better suited.

    1. Re:maybe more appropriate? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ....you're a moron....

  5. Add -osaur by guiding_knight · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I find this quite entertaining, and disturbing at the same time. Does this mean if I find a mistake in someones name chosen for a creature, I can rename some dinosaur yourmamasaur? :)

    Honestly, I think the best, most scientifically reliable and polit thing to do would be to just add a suffix. Call it syntarsaur or syntarsusaurus, something along those lines. This probably does not follow any sort of species naming convention, but I'm sure a reasonable substitute could be found by adding something to the end (in latin, of course:). This would avoid a lot of inter-field animosity. Instead they chose to set a precedent of mocking other fields of science. This does not bode well for the effort to catalog all species. We could end up with some very odd names indeed.

    --
    LOTR: Elijah Wood is a munchkin asshat. Yes, asshat. LOL.
    1. Re:Add -osaur by gartogg · · Score: 1

      Am I the only one looking for a database of scientific names to find duplicates? I mean, come on... I want a gartoggasaurus, and then we could get a slashdotachus, for obvious reasons and then maybe a goatse.cx-abilis in honor of /.'s trolls. There is no end to the madness.

      Don't mod me down. It's a JOKE!

      --
      I'm a concientious .sig objector.
  6. Big "dead" lizard? by jfengel · · Score: 3, Informative

    My Greek is rusty, but "dead" would be "nekros". Is he going for "apnoi", "not breathing"? As in "big not-breathing lizard?"

    Well, at least it's all Greek, rather than the usual Greek-Latin mush (e.g. tyrannosaurus).

    Omnia Mihi Lingua Graeca Sunt.

    1. Re:Big "dead" lizard? by CaptainCarrot · · Score: 3, Informative
      Yes, it's really "big breathless lizard", and it's Greek, not Latin as the article states.

      But tyrannosaur isn't a "Greek-Latin mush". "Tyrannos" is Greek, although as "tyrannus" it was eventually taken up into Latin. But that was later, it was Greek first, and was famously applied to the absolute rulers of the Archaic period. Perhaps you're thinking of something like "australopithecus", which is Latin "australis", "southern" + Greek "pithekos", "ape.

      --
      And the brethren went away edified.
    2. Re:Big "dead" lizard? by jfengel · · Score: 1

      You're right. I was thinking "Tyrannosaurus Rex", which _is_ a Greek-Latin mush.

    3. Re:Big "dead" lizard? by CaptainCarrot · · Score: 1

      Yeah, true. But at least it's two words, and not a Greek and a Latin element squeezed together into a single word.

      --
      And the brethren went away edified.
  7. What's all the fuss about? by Guru1 · · Score: 0, Troll

    Come now, who's ever heard of a "Syntarsus" before? If it was a T-rex or a triceratops getting renamed, I could see the problem.. but personally the difference between a fused ankle dino and a dead lizard doesn't make a whole lotta difference. Comeon, they're dead.

    1. Re:What's all the fuss about? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      If it was a T-rex or a triceratops getting renamed, I could see the problem.

      Don't laugh - it's happened.

      I'd wager everyone here has heard of a Brontosaurus, right? Wrong! There is no such thing. One of the best known dinosaurs doesn't even exist.

      Some karma whore can probably post the specifics, but I believe that the skeleton which was named "Brontosaurus" was actually a mix of the skeletons of two different species, so a short while back (Late '80s, early '90s) they realized the mistake and yanked the name.

  8. I thought scientific names... by V.+Mole · · Score: 2, Interesting

    ...included family/genus/species as well (e.g. homo habilus vs homo sapien), so how can a beetle name conflict with a dinosaur name? And if they do conflict, why is there an "elephant beetle"?

    1. Re:I thought scientific names... by Nyphur · · Score: 1

      "Elephant Beetle" - Well maybe it ate too much ;)

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    2. Re:I thought scientific names... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      All genus-group names compete with each other at the same level for all animals. Thus whenever a genus-group name is proposed it must not be "occupied" by *any* other taxon. That is it can't have been made valid by an earlier author.

      Family-group names compete in the same way, as do species-group names. If you want to know how this works look up the ICZN (international code of zoological nomenclature).

      cheers

  9. Microphallus Schmidti by JMZero · · Score: 2

    - the name given a fish-gut parasite. Apparently the discoverer was not fond of a colleague named Schmidt.

    And we're all familiar with the owl-lice species "Garylarsoni"....

    I think not-very-scientific names are common and inevitable. There are only so many descriptive Latin words. And for most of these species, the name is pretty much a sequence number - very few will instantly bring to mind the actual species.

    I think "Big Dead Lizard" is a pretty reasonable alternative really.

    .

    --
    Let's not stir that bag of worms...
    1. Re:Microphallus Schmidti by soundsop · · Score: 1

      I am a bit wary of any claims that come without corroboration. No offense is meant to the poster; my fear of fraud is due to my own dream of planting false information on the Internet that becomes widespread ;)

      As a small step toward corroboration I found an Internet reference to strigiphilus garylarsoni, but no reference to microphallus schmidti. I did find a reference to microphallus pygmaeus, but this name sounds more decriptive of the species than combative.

      My personal nomination for a species name is microphallus scatophagus (small-dicked shit-eater).

    2. Re:Microphallus Schmidti by JMZero · · Score: 1

      I have no evidence. The source, my bio prof, apparently had worked with the fellow. Either way, good entertainment value - though it would be interesting to find out if it's real. Is there a central resource somewhere on the net? It'd be fun to browse these.

      Have a good day.

      .

      --
      Let's not stir that bag of worms...
  10. Don't Get Mad, Get Even by John+Hasler · · Score: 3, Funny

    The dinosaur people should rename one of Ivie's species "little dead bug".

    The beetle people are burning up the namespace. They should be required to name their critters with GUID's.

    Or maybe the scientific community needs to reconsider the idea of globally unique species names. Who would be confused by a beetle and a dinosaur having the same species name?

    --
    Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
    1. Re:Don't Get Mad, Get Even by Verne · · Score: 1

      128bit names.

      bring on beetle naming version 6

      They are obviously running out of names with beetle naming version 4...

      --


      There are only two things in this world that smell like fish. And one of them's fish...
  11. Blame it ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ... on the South African postal system. O the joys of living in a formerly first-world country take over by the third world....

  12. The rules rule by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    The rules rule and the entomologist has done what is expected of him. I have done the same thing and would do it again. The paleontologists were sloppy in not doing there homework first.

    The codes for zoology and botany can be found at:

    Zoology
    http://www.iczn.org/code.htm
    (older [1995] on-line draft at http://zeus.ruca.ua.ac.be/EvolutionaryBiology/coll /doc/iczn4txt.htm)

    Botany
    http://www.bgbm.org/iapt/nomenclature/co de/SaintLo uis/0000St.Luistitle.htm

    and

    http://www.ishs.org/ord/code.htm

    1. Re:The rules rule by Lars+T. · · Score: 2
      Ohh, I can see it: In 1969, Paleontologist Mike Raath of South Africa's Bernard Price Institute for Palaeontological Research names a dinosaur without typing "http://www.iczn.org/code.htm" into his computer first - I wonder why.

      OTOH one has to wonder why Mr. Bughunter didn't type "Mike Raath Bernard Price Institute" into Google, click on the 2nd hit to find that

      Mike is a vertebrate palaeontologist with a special interest in dinosaurs. He is a former Director of the BPI who left in 1987 to become Director of the Port Elizabeth Museum. On his retirement from there in 1995 he returned to the Institute as Curator of Collections. His research interests remain focused on the fauna of the Late Triassic / Early Jurassic Elliot Formation - particularly the dinosaurs.
      - and has an Email-address.

      Then again, why didn't Raath simply name it Syntarsussaurus?

      --

      Lars T.

      To the guy who modded me down from perfect to terrible Karma - Apple haters still suck

    2. Re:The rules rule by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The International Code of Zoological Nomenclature has a long history, and was, as today, present and widely available in paper form back in 1969. For full details, read "Towards Stability in the Names of Animals - a History of the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature 1895-1995." by International Trust for Zoological Nomenclature, 1995, 104 pp. (ISBN 0 85301 005 6).

      And, why Syntarsussaurus?! Had he named it Syntarsosaurus it would even have been correct grammatically. (I haven't, however, checked the synonymy for that...)

    3. Re:The rules rule by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I just found this conversation, and although I am not logged in, will identify myself as Michael Ivie, notorious bug (well, beetle) guy.

      I did try to find Raath on the internet, but in 1996. The page you site it from 2001. When my letter was not answered, and when I could not find either Raath (who published under "M. A. Raath" making him even harder to find") or his host museum in Zimbabwe on the web, I ask a dinosaur worker for help, and was told Raath had died. Obviously wrong in hind sight, but one does not normally spend a lot of time looking for addresses for the dead. I waited for 4 years after sending a letter to Raath, and then we needed the name cleaned up.

      I had a well-known dinosaur worker, Jack Horner, review the paper before submission to make sure no one would be offended, and he said go ahead -- its funny.

      Michael Ivie