Most inappropriate/fun/silly scientific names in Palaeontology

marco_polo

This thread is inspired by the weird creatures thread featuring Basilosaurs or "King Lizzard" who later turned out to be a whale.

The aim is to find other animals that have been lumbered with an inappropriate/unfortunate scientific name due to the rule whereby the name given to first specimen is always upheld no matter what subsequent discoveries are made.

Aside from Basilosaurs, my first nomination is probably the oldest case of a miscarraige of justice in the entire world. Oviraptor or "Egg seizer/thief" was so named because it was first discovered atop a pile of what were thought to be Protoceratops eggs. Later evidence, including re-analysis of the eggs and other similar discoveries of nesting oviraptorids cleared it of all wrong doing and showed that Oviraptor was in fact brooding its nest. However rules are rules and so the first 'unjust' name stands.

Henry Osborn, who first described the fossil, wisely stated at the time that the name Oviraptor "may entirely mislead us as to its feeding habits and belief its character".

The floor is now open for nominations ....................

Galvasean

Anomalocaris which means 'different shrimp' when it is in fact anything but.

Pretty much any dinosaur with 'saurus' in it's name, as it is derived from 'sauros' which is Greek for lizard.

Galvasean

How about Quetzalcoatlus? Named after the Aztec God of the same name which means 'feathered serphant'. In reality it was neither feathered nor a serphant.

Or how about Dracorex hogwartsia? Dracorex, meaning 'dragon king' sounds cool, although maybe it would have suited a larger, fiercer dinosaur. But hogwartsia Bah, keep your Harry Potter away from my dinosaurs! damn you Bakker, you're not twelve anymore! :mad:For once I'm hoping Jack horner is right for a change (he thinks Dracorex is in fact a juvenille of a larger species of pachycephalosaur. If he is right, the name will no longer be used!) - more info on that here.

Weidii

It's always bothered me how both brachiopods and molluscan bivalves are referred to as bivalves. I know they are both bivalved, but it seems like calling a wolf and a tiger "sharp tooth" to me.

marco_polo

Apidium - An extinct primate whose name translates as 'small bull'

Expanding the terms of reference to include silly / fun names we have:

Masiakasaurus knopfleri - named after the musician Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits, Is just funny

Also there is a jazz loving trilobite named Hedstroemia milesdavis

Galvasean

There was also Hyaenodon whose name means 'hyaena tooth' despite not being closely related to hyaenas or having particularly similar dentition.

marco_polo

We also have small to medium size dinosaur Megapnosaurs meaning 'Big dead Lizzard' which is wrong on so many levels, mainly the usual not a lizzard (like all his kin), not very big and of course its dead its a fossil. Some contraversy over this one as the original discover chose a name already taken by a beetle and could not be re-contacted to re-name his discovery

Or the carnivorous predator Phytosaur meaning 'plant reptile'.

Galvasean

marco_polo wrote: »

We also have small to medium size dinosaur Megapnosaurs meaning 'Big dead Lizzard' which is wrong on so many levels, mainly the usual not a lizzard (like all his kin), not very big and of course its dead its a fossil.

Then there is Erlikosaurus, which means 'lord of the dead lizards'.

marco polo wrote:

Some contraversy over this one as the original discover chose a name already taken by a beetle and could not be re-contacted to re-name his discovery

He's not the only one. Mononykus meaning 'single claw' has an unusual spelling as a type of weevil already had the name Mononychus, which is the proper spelling.

Galvasean

Brachiosaurus which means 'arm lizard'.
Do you see any arms?!!?!?!?!?

Galvasean

This video reminded me of this thread:
http://news.discovery.com/videos/dinosaurs-naming-a-new-dino.html

Galvasean

Macrauchenia which means 'big lama'.
This is not a lama!

Galvasean

Proceratosaurus. It's name implies that it was the ancestor of Ceratosaurus, whwn in fact it was not part of the ceratosaur family at all. It was actually a forerunner of the tyrannosaurs.

Galvasean

Struthiomimus, whose name means 'ostrich mimic',

, who lived millions of years before the ostrich (Struthio).

It was the ostrich who plagiarised him I tell you!

Galvasean

Megaraptor namunhuaiquii. The namunhuaiquii part of the name refers to the 'lance like' foot claw as it was believed to be a type of dromaeosaur (raptor), but is infact a close relative of Allosaurus and the claw was actually located on the hand.


Megaraptor attacking a small titanosaur by Luis V. Rey

Galvasean

Anyone remember 'Microceratops'?

Picture by Mary Evans

Well, as it turns out that name was already taken by a wasp (damn bugs) so it's now called Microceratus. That happens an awful lot. Despite being named 'Microceratops' in 1953 the name did not get changed until 2008!

Adam Khor

Fun thread :>

Here's the ones I remember;

Protosphyraena, a sword-fish look-alike from the Late Cretaceous period; the name means "early barracuda", despite it being unrelated to barracudas (it was also not related to swordfish despite its appearance)



Megarachne, a short bodied eurypterid ("sea scorpion") was at first thought to be the largest spider known from prehistory, hence the name. This is what Megarachne actually looked like:



Palorchestes was a tapir-wombat-like animal from the Miocene, Pliocene and Pleistocene of Australia, its name means "ancient leaper" or "ancient dancer" despite it being a big fat hulk of a beast. The name was given by Sir Richard Owen who thought Palorchestes was a giant kangaroo.



Struthiosaurus was an ankylosaur (tank-like dinosaur), but its name means "ostrich lizard"...



As for fun names, there's Ninjemys, a Pleistocene Australian turtle, and yes, it does mean "ninja turtle".



There's Montypythonoides, a giant prehistoric snake named after, well, Monty Python, although the name is no longer used; it was replaced by Morelia riversleighensis, as it was found that it was too similar to modern day Morelia pythons and likely belonged to the same genus. (Morelia viridis in the pic)



And of course, there's this bizarre tribute to Jurassic Park that's Tianchisaurus nedegoapeferima. The specific name honors the main Jurassic Park actors (Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, Richard Attenborough, Bob Peck, Martin Ferrero, Ariana Richards and Martin Ferrero. Notice how everyone forgot about Dennis Nedry...)
Tianchisaurus was originally called Jurassosaurus (after Jurassic Park!) but it was later changed.



Finally, there's one of my least favorite dinosaur names, Bambiraptor. The only worst thing they could have done would be to name a tyrannosaur "Winniethepoohsaurus".
Fortunately, it was recently found that Bambiraptor is most likely a juvenile Saurornitholestes.



There's many more but I can´t remember just now... but people, let's not forget the most inappropiate, fun and silly name in the history of everything!

Homo sapiens?? Seriously??





But that, of course, is not paleontology...

Galvasean

Excellent round up. I'd recommend submitting that to cracked.com and listverse!

Adam Khor

Are you on Listverse? I've submitted several lists!

Rubecula

Brilliant stuff Adam. Had me chuckling into me tea.:pac:

Alvin T. Grey

I would vote for any dino whos name can't be pronounced after the second beer..

Galvasean

About.com's 10 worst dinosaur names:
http://dinosaurs.about.com/od/dinosaurdiscovery/tp/The-10-Worst-Dinosaur-Names.htm

Rubecula

I have taken a sudden interest in Rubeosaurus cos of the name. Does that count as a silly name or a silly reason?:pac:


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubeosaurus

Galvasean

"This genus was named by Andrew T. McDonald and John R. Horner in 2010, and the type species is Rubeosaurus ovatus. Formerly this species was assigned to Styracosaurus. "

The same John R. Horner who claims 1 in 3 species of dinosaur never existed and are in fact just variables of previously known species? Not helping Jack!

Rubecula

Yes he raises his ugly head once again. He will only be happy if someone names one after him.

Something with a small brain and a big head preferably.:pac:

Galvasean

Cracked.com's list of the 10 lamest dinosaur names:
http://www.cracked.com/article_16040_the-10-lamest-dinosaur-names.html?wa_user1=2&wa_user2=Science&wa_user3=article&wa_user4=recommended

Huh huh.... Erectopus

Capt'n Midnight

Thylarctos plummetus