How Do Dinosaurs Get Their Names?
Dinosaurs footprints were discovered many years ago. The scientist who found these animal tracks, Hitchcock, died in 1964. After that, fossils of these animals were found by other scientists. However, the scientists didn’t call the3se animal ‘Dinosaur’.
It was only very much later that Professor Richard Owen gave the name ‘Dinosaur’ to this group of animals. The name ‘dinosaur’ means ‘terrible lizard’. Each time new type of dinosaur is found, it is given a name. the name is always made up of two parts: an individual name and a species name.
A dinosaur name usually describes a feature of the dinosaur. For example, the name Stegosaurus armatus means ‘armored roof lizard’ and refers to the plates along the back of the animal.
Sometimes, the name of a dinosaur tells us the place where its fossils were first discovered. Mamenchisaurus hochuanensis is a name given to a dinosaur whose fossils were first found in Mamenchi and Hochuan in China.
A dinosaur can even be named in honour of people who have made great contributions to research on dinosaurs. Megalosaurus bucklandi and Iguanodon mantelli were named after two English dinosaur researchers, Buckland and Mantel. Buckland found dinosaur fossils with jagged teeth. Mantel discovered herbivorous dinosaurs.
Dinosaurs get their names in many ways. We can find out something about dinosaurs just by looking at its name…
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