#dinosaur names

[els-dinos]

Not me getting emotional over this dino’s name etymology- 😭

“Guancarlo Ligabueino’s little one” <3

[esperqm]

Can we talk about how Maip macrothorax is basically named Evil McBigtits?

Which, coincidentally, is what they called me during the war-

[doorbloggr]

Monday 27/6/21 - Dinosaur Name Changes

For today's dinosaur themed post, I'm gonna go over some fun facts I know about dinosaurs names. New species are named when we know an organism has enough unique traits to be separate from any known relatives, this is the same for both extant animals, and animals we only know from fossils. But sometimes, when more information is known, names can change.

Megalosaurus

Megalosaurus, Mark Witton

In the old days of fossil hunting, new skeletal remains of dinosaurs were being found all the time. But since little was understood about the biology and anatomy of this newly discovered group of animals in the 1800s, what defined a new species was uncertain.

Megalosaurus (large reptile) was the first dinosaur to be given a scientifically accepted name in 1824, and for a while this name was a wastebasket taxon. This meant that anytime new remains were found that were not sufficiently distinct from Megalosaurus bones, they were also named Megalosaurus.

As palaeontologists became better at finding specific diagnostic details to define different species, dozens of dinosaur specimens previously called Megalosaurus got their own species names. These include many dinosaurs that are well known even today such as Allosaurus and Dilophosaurus.

A bunch of dinosaurs previously known as Megalosaurus. Left from top to bottom: Ornithomimus, Plateosaurus, Carcharodontosaurus. Right top to bottom: Dilophosaurus, Allosaurus

Artist credit:

Bálint Benke (Plateo), Andrey Atuchin (Allo), Brian Engh (Dilopho), FredtheDinosaurGuy (Carch) Gabriel Ugueto (Ornitho)

Manospondylus gigas

Tyrannosaurus rex, (the junior synonym), Emily Willoughby

In scientific taxonomy, there is now a hard rule called Principle of Priority, where the first name given to a species has hard priority over any subsequent names. If a scientist finds an apparently unknown species and tries to give it a name, if it already had a name, the new name is disbanded.

A well respected palaeontologist named Henry Fairfield Osborn described 3 different dinosaur species in the late 1800s to early 1900s, called Manospondylus gigas, Dynamosaurus imperiosis, and Tyrannosaurus rex. Later close looks at the remains determined that Dynamosaurus and Tyrannosaurus were the same species, and since Osborn named those two in the same time span, he chose Tyrannosaurus rex as the preferred species name.

Holotypes (original skeletal remains) of Tyrannosaurus and Dynamosaurus

Much much later, it was discovered that the remains of Manospondylus was also T.rex, but there was an issue. Since Manospondylus was described in 1892 and Tyrannosaurus in 1902, that technically meant that Manospondylus was the senior species name and should have naming priority. But there is a loophole in the rule, where if the senior name was not a widely recognised/accepted name, the name with more popular usage would win out. And since Manospondylus only corresponded to two pieces of vertebrate and was never given a detailed description, thankfully, Tyrannosaurus won.

The other T.rex

Hybosorus roei, an extant close relative of Tyrannosorus

Although not strictly a dinosaur fact, palaeontologists like to have fun with their naming of species sometimes. In 2001, a large scarab beetle was found trapped in Amber, and scientists decided they would called it Tyrannosorus rex, as a fun pun name. The obvious root here is Tyrannosaurus rex as main naming inspiration, but it's genus name, Tyranno-sorus actually means tyrannical lump, referring to the large lump of Amber(sap) the beetle was found in.

Intraspecies Variation and Collapsing Taxa

Tyrannosaurus lucked out in being able to keep the cooler new name, but that hasn't always been the case. Sometimes, two or more related species have been accepted as valid taxon for a long time, and then scientists come up new theories on their anatomy that result in taxon being combined.

Although two skeletons might vary significantly in appearance, that does not mean they are necessarily different species. Animals today vary a lot in their appearance depending on age or gender. This has meant some dinosaurs with arguably cooler names have been collapsed into more boring species names due to intraspecific (same species) variation.

Skeletal remains of Pachycephalosaurus, Stygimoloch, and Dracorex

The example I want to highlight today is Pachycephalosaurus and it's relatives(?). Theres three well known helmet crested dinosaurs, Dracorex, Stygimoloch, and Pachycephalosaurus. All three are known from detailed remains and the taxa have been valid for a good amount of time. But recently, Palaeontologists have theorised that rather than be related species, the three could represent three life stages of one animal, Dracorex being the youngest form of Pachycephalosaurus. The science isn't final yet, so not every palaeontologist agrees with this collapse of taxa yet, but if this were to occur, Pachycephalosaurus, (arguably the least interesting of the three names) would be the senior species name, and take priority.

Comparison of the skulls of Dracorex, Stygimoloch, and Pachycephalosaurus, Holly Woodward

Other dinosaurs I know who lost cool names off the top of my head are Saurophaganax (now widely considered Allosaurus), and Anatotitan (now widely considered Edmontosaurus).

(Left) Allosaurus, Gabriel Ugueto

(Right) Edmontosaurus, @Squeegool on twitter

Thanks for Reading

If you have any specific dinosaur topics you'd like me to talk about, my DMs and Asks are open. Other dinosaur posts I've made before can be found on the pinned post on my blog.

[prismatica-the-strange]

Dinosaur time! Please send me Dinosaur names

Tell me if you want a contender for Dino fight club or just a random dino out living its best life 😊😊

[kueraleido]

if you’re ever sad, look up the meanings of dinosaur names. trust me.

[weirdunicorn]

We have another named Dino, this time from the African Wildlife Foundation Ad, Perry the Sinoceratops. Not sure if this is cannon, but as with the other names for the Dinos throughout the movie series, its probably going to stick.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4S_lUWItc0&app=desktop&ab_channel=CutTheBeardToWatchaMovie

[artistic-daspletosaurus]

Found on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/curiositydotcom/photos/a.293459797348511.88330.206936646000827/1581110475250097/?type=3&theater

Well, let’s throw in my details and I get: Megalo-urus-teryx

WTF?!

[tabulariumfiles]