The wonderful Richard Butler was nice enough to make a PDF of the Nedoceratops paper discussed in my last post. As mentioned in the comment section of the last post, the etymology of the new name Nedoceratops is "nedo" the Russian prefix for insufficiency with the generic name Ceratops. I, personally, think that naming a creature as insufficient is not very nice. There are plenty of fossils out there named on the basis of only the skull, so why is this particular one so insufficient?! If it is so insufficient why not let someone who is interested in the poor creature work on it. The name had been out there for 102 years! 102! What was wrong with letting it remain until someone who is interested in it work on it rather than just giving it a sad, rude (in my opinion) name? I think Diceratus (Greek di ‘‘two,’’ Greek ceratos ‘‘horned’’), was a far better name in comparison. But that is just my opinion.
Edit: I asked Dr. Ukrainsky in an email what he meant by "Nedo" and this was his response: "Russian prefix "nedo" (insufficiency sensu lato) means, that this ceratopsian has lack: nasal horn absent."
Reference:
Ukrainsky, A. S. 2007. A Replacement Name for Diceratops Lull, 1905 (Reptilia: Ornithischia: Ceratopidae). Zoosystematica Rossica 16(2): 292.
5 comments:
Sounds like another Megapnosaurus incident. :P
I agree with you. The animal didn't do anything to deserve that name. That's not fair!! It's complete, and it's the Fossilized REMAINS of the animal. Why don't you work on Diceratops? I think someone should do something about it and yuo seem to be passionate enough to change it.
There is another person interested.
Craptastic name, in so many ways. Well, you know what? There's always the option that many follow with Megapnosaurus: just consider it a subjective synonym of another genus (in Megapnosaurus' case, Coelophysis). It's not like every Mesozoic dinosaur species needs its own genus anyway, and hatcheri is similar enough to horridus (and prorsus) to make Triceratops hatcheri palatable, right?
I spoke with Dr. Ukrainsky in an email what he meant by "Nedo" and this was his response: "Russian prefix "nedo" (insufficiency sensu lato) means, that this ceratopsian has lack: nasal horn absent."
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