Fun With Nomen or: The Taxonomist's Migraine

Taxonomy, the study of naming life scientifically, is an immensely complicated and confusing science, easily confounding enough to baffle any taxonomist, let alone hapless non-scientists who wonder what all the Latin words mean. This is evidenced by the number of names which have been left behind in the proverbial dust over the years.

A nomen dubium (pl. nomina dubia) is a scientific name based off of insufficient evidence to make it a valid name. There are a plethora of these in the scientific archives, more than enough to fill up a thick volume. A nomen nudum (pl. nomina nuda) is a word that sounds like a scientific name, and may indeed have been intended as one, but was never officially published, and as such holds little to no scientific value. A nomen oblitum (pl. nomina oblita) is a name which has not been used scientifically since 1899, after which any junior synonyms take its place.

Below are some of my favorites in that confusing world of dubious, stripped, and forgotten names, and the stories of how they came to be.

*Aachenosaurus - This dinosaur was discovered in the borderland between Belgium and Germany in 1888, and classified as a hadrosaur. Unfortunately for the reputation of its discoverer, Aachenosaurus turned out to be based upon specimens of petrified wood.

*Apatodon - "Deceptive tooth". The label couldn't fit better! When the backbone of this synonym for Allosaurus was found by Othniel Charles Marsh, he thought it was the tooth of a pig.

*Succinodon - Discovered by von Huene in 1941 near Warsaw, Poland, this fossil was attributed to the jaw bone of a titanosaur. However, later studies showed that it was - surprise - petrified wood.

*"Unicerosaurus" - "Unicerosaurus" was the nomen nudum given to a y-shaped bone from Texas, which was used for display at a Creation museum.

*Dynamosaurus, Manospondylus, Stygivenator, Dinotyrannus - All cool-sounding synonyms for Tyrannosaurus. Dynamosaurus, Stygivenator, and Dinotyrannus are all junior synonyms, by Manospondylus was named before Tyrannosaurus. However, since it hasn't been used since 1892, it's a nomen oblitum.

And there's plenty more where that came from. The point being, taxonomy is very complicated, and you should count yourself lucky that you don't have to deal with them more than you do! (Pictured is a nomen dubium, Agathaumas.)

DinoBlag: Giraffatitan

Two DinoBlags in a day? Blasphemy! However, I felt that I should make at least one other update before I logged off. So to that effect, this is the DinoBlag for the huge Giraffatitan brancai. Giraffatitan is known from several specimens which were found in the early 20th Century in Tanzania. It was named Brachiosaurus brancai by Janensch in 1914, but was set apart as a distinct genus by Gregory S. Paul in 1988.

It was somewhat more gracile than the American Brachiosaurus, but still measured at a whopping 82 feet (25 meters) long, 43 feet (13 meters) tall, and weighed around 25 tons (23 tonnes). It lived during the Upper Jurassic, about 145 million years ago, and was an herbivore, grazing from the tallest trees. Though its reclassification has been disputed, a recent study by Michael Taylor showed that almost every bone that was compared was different in some way or another from Brachiosaurus'.

Interestingly enough, most reconstructions of Brachiosaurus are based off of Giraffatitan skull material, giving us the classic high-crested look we're all used to. However, a skull found in the US in 1998 has been shown to belong to a North American Brachiosaurus, and is much more similar to that of the Camarasaurus than of Giraffatitan.

DinoBlag: Megistotherium

The subject of our latest DinoBlag is an animal which is argued to be the largest mammalian land predator of all time, Megistotherium osteothlastes. Megistotherium is known from several specimens from Libya and Egypt, which date back to the Eocene epoch, 24 million years ago.

Megistotherium is a hyaenodontid, a family of the creodonts, which were a group of large, mammalian carnivores, most with builds similar to those of modern dogs and wolves. Megistotherium was named by Robert Savage in 1973; its full name means, "greatest, bone-crushing beast". It grew up to a staggering 13 feet (4 meters) in length, 6 feet (1.8 meters) tall, and weighed around 1.5 tons. Its teeth were designed for shearing and cutting meat.

Even scarier, mastodon bones found not too far off were found with tooth-marks from Megistotherium, suggesting that the beasts killed and ate the mastodons.

CryptoBlag: Mothman

I was just reading through some of my older articles, and realized that I'd promised some cryptozoology stuff on the blog. To that effect, I've added the CryptoBlag as a sister to DinoBlag. For those who don't know, cryptozoology is the study of animals whose existence is, as of yet, unproven by science. Examples include Bigfoot, Nessie, and the Yeti.

The Mothman was spotted between November 1966 and December 1967 in the town of Point Pleasant, WV, which is just across the Ohio River from Gallipolis, OH. It was described as a man-sized creature, shrouded in shadows, with a pair of large wings and two, red eyes, which are usually described as being on its chest. It is described in witness accounts as being capable of swift flight (keeping pace with speeding cars), and only rarely moving while on the ground.

The first sighting of the creature was on November 15, 1966, near an abandoned WW2 munitions plant outside of Point Pleasant. It was seen by a pair of married couples, who were terrified by its appearance and fled back to town. It was sighted again and again up until December 15, 1967, when the bridge over the Ohio from Point Pleastant to Gallipolis collapsed, kiling 47 people. Curiously, sightings dropped off after the tragedy on the Ohio, and since then very few sightings have taken place.

It's worth noting that by several eyewitnesses, after spotting Mothman, were visited by the infamous Men In Black, tanned government agents with a bent for covering up alien sightings (or so the stories go).

Mission: Opossible

Didelphids, the family of marsupials of which the Virginia opossum (Didelphis virginiana) is the only living member, are the only marsupials left in North America. However, recent studies show that North America was once the hub of marsupial activity. In fact, the paradectids, a sister group to the didelphids, are now thought to have been the root of all living marsupials.

Compared with other mammals (except maybe monotremes such as the platypus), marsupials are remarkably primitive. They bear their undeveloped young in pouches, where the infants nurse until they are able to fend for themselves. Even their appearance is prehistoric, as any American with a trashcan can tell you from experience. They almost look as though they belong in the Mesozoic, rather than the modern day.

The news that these primitive mammals originated in North America has been decided based on a skull found in the Eocene Bighorn Basin of Wyoming, USA. Analysis of the skull, and two 30-million-year-old skeletons, shows that the split between opossums and all other marsupials on the planet occurred about 65 million years ago, at the end of the Cretaceous, in North America.

It is presently thought that marsupials migrated from North to South America until the end of the Cretaceous, when the two continents split (until the Pliocene, at least), and marsupials made their way through Antarctica to Australia, as the southern continent, much warmer in those days, is thought to have connected South America and Australia.

Venom!

Surprise, surprise! Recent studies show similarities between the mouth structures of small feathered dinosaurs, such as Sinornithosaurus and others, and those of venomous snakes such as vipers and rattlesnakes. What does this mean? We're not sure yet, but it would seem to suggest that maybe the furry little things weren't so cuddly as you'd think.

If the scientists are to be believed, small predatory dinosaurs like these may have been venomous. Which means that Velociraptor and others would have not only had killer claws, but also a killer bite. (Though, recent studies show, the "killing" claw would have been more suited for climbing than slicing) See also the May, '09 article about venomous Komodos.

DinoBlag: Dryptosaurus

Introducing the brand new segment, DinoBlag which will be replacing the Critter of the segment. The first creature feature (hehe) is the first theropod to be discovered on the North American continent, Dryptosaurus aquilunguis, which was a primitive tyrannosaur.

Dryptosaurus was discovered and named in 1866 by Edward Drinker cope as Laelaps aquilunguis, referring to the Laelaps, a dog of ancient Greek myth. However, it was soon discovered that the name was, as often happens, taken by a genus of mite. It was the first dinosaur to lose its name to a bug, but it certainly was not the last. It was renamed as Dryptosaurus by Othniel C. Marsh in 1877, and the name has, so far, proved valid.

It is thought that Dryptosaurus, one of the dinosaurs endemic to New Jersey, USA, was related to the Early Cretaceous tyrannosaur, Eotyrannus, from England, and it has three fingers on two relatively long front limbs. It is thought that it would have primarily preyed upon the contemporary Hadrosaurus, which was the first dinosaur discovered in the US. Though, due to the rarity of east coast dinosaurs, it is difficult to get a complete picture of Dryptosaurus' diet.

Dryptosaurus was about 20 feet (6.5 meters) long and 6 feet (1.8 meters) tall. It probably weighed a bit over a ton, and was somewhat more gracile than Tyrannosaurus and company. It lived about 70 million years before the present, in the Maastrichtian age of the late Cretaceous.

So, uh...

I'm lazy when it comes to these things, really! Worry not, 3 or 4 fans. I'll get more updates onto the blog here soon.