This week was meant to be a warm-up issue into Shocktober until a very good question was asked on the 'Did You Know?' thread. Because of that we are not covering the animal that gives birth through holes in its back, and if you have an issue with that take it up with @referee and @arctika, I blame them for this tangent. And if you want to request an issue on an amazing animal, fabulous fungus, perplexing plant, or awesome paleofauna, don't hesitate to leave a request in the comments.
*Dinosaurs and some other non-avian archosaurs are currently going through a taxonomic shakeup due to their relationship with modern day birds.
Related Species: The genus Hetrodontosaurus contains a single species Hetrodontosaurus tucki. The family Hetrodontosauridae contains nine genera including Pegomastax and Echinodon (1).
Range: Fossil remains of Hetrodontosaurus come from rocks dating 200-190 million years ago(mya), from the Elliot Formation, part of the Karoo Supergroup that includes large areas of Lesotho and South Africa.
IUCN Status: The conservation status of Hetrodontosaurus is not currently listed as by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) but would be designated 'Extinct'.
What (wrong) teeth you have.
Hetrodontosaurus is a small bipedal dinosaur that reached lengths of 1.7m, and a maximum weight of 10kg. While skin fossils of Hetrodontosaurus have not been found, those of the loosely related genus Tianyulong are known and consist of 6cm long non branching quill like feathers, and as such were likely present in all members of the Hetrodontosauridae family (2). An factitive biped, unlike some later ornithischian dinosaurs, Hetrodontosaurus had claw like toes instead of hooves, and had five fingers on the hand, in sharp contrast to the reducing number of fingers seen in later dinosaur groups, with the hand long enough to be used in locomotion when required. Hetrodontosaurus was among the genera whose leg muscle length and rotation quota were used to determine metabolism. The range calculated for all the genera tested, with the exception of Archeopteryx, exceeded the upper echelons for ectothermic metabolism, suggesting that like modern birds and mammals, the Hetrodontosaurus was able to endothermically maintain its own body temperature (3).
The most notable feature of Hetrodontosaurus is its unique dentition, most notably two pairs of canine like tusks, one pair in the upper jaw, and a larger pair in the lower jaw. Combined with cone shaped front teeth in front of the canines and the cheek teeth at the back of the jaw, the Hetrodontosauridaehad hetrodont teeth, something no other clade of dinosaurs possess, but is commonly seen in mammals. The tusks had serrations to the surface and suggests that Hetrodontosaurus was an omnivore, feeding on a range of plants, as well as small reptiles carrion and invertebrate prey (4). Hetrodontosaurus was likely a prey item to the larger predators, the dinosaurs: Dracovenator and Megapnosaurus and the pseudosuchian Sphenosuchus (5).
Hetrodontosaurus replaced its teeth at a much lower rate than its later relatives and appeared to replace the entire set at roughly the same time. It is currently hypothesized that the closest dinosaur clade related to Hetrodontosauridae is the Pachycephalosauria, a clade known from the Cretaceous and contains genera such as Pachycephalosaurus and Homalocephale, however this relationship is not yet confirmed (6). The cause of extinction of Hetrodontosaurus is unknown, although the rocks above the Karoo Supergroup, the Drakensberg Group, are volcanic in nature, and a such high levels of volcanism as well as tectonic break up of supercontinents, first Pangea, and then Gondwanaland, may have had some impact.
Spotlight #12 - The Rules of Bionomial Nomenclature
So this is why this issue with the dentist's nightmare exits.
Did not know, and I'd love to ask who creates these technical, literal names for these words lol. - @arctika (7)
While simple, this is a very good question which unfortunately has a very complicated answer. The short answer to who is responsible for this naming convention is scientists. While I am approaching this for a biology perspective, much of what I will initially talk about can carry over into other scientific fields. Most scientific names are meant to be descriptors of what ever that name has been assigned to. Take the feature creature Hetrodontosaurus for example, we can split the genus name into three parts; hetro, don/dent and saurus.Hetro and don't come from Latin and translate to different and tooth, while saurus comes from Greek and translates to lizard, with all three words referencing the unique tooth composition of the genus. Because Latin was the initial language used to assign scientific names to biota, these names are sometimes called Latin names, although the more accurate term is binomial name.
When discussing living things, scientists almost always use the binomial name over the colloquial name because the former is a shared language that bypasses any difference in language caused by location. The northern viper, for example, has the additional colloquial names European adder, European viper, adder, common adder, crossed viper, common viper, cross adder and zigzag viper, just across its European range, Considering the wide range of languages and dialects present throughout the snakes range, the binomial name Vipera berus allows all scientists to bypass the guessing involved with the different regional names, especially because the northern viper is just one of twenty one snakes within the genus with similar ranges and patterning.
As the term binomial suggests, species are comprised of two names; one for the genus and one for the species. For example, the genus name for big cats is Panthera, while the species name for one particular cat in this genus is leo, comprising the binomial name Panthera leo. Binomial names should be, where possible be italicised to highlight their importance, and underlined in cases, such as with handwritten notes, were this is not possible. When referring to multiple species within a genus, only the first member needs to have the full genus defined, so for example, when talking about conflict between lions (Pantheraleo) and leopards (P. padus) the Panthera in leopard, can be reduced to just 'P'.
While traditionally Latin was the only language used, Greek words eventually became included, particularly in fossil taxa, and there has been a recent push to use words from the languages native to the discovery of the new life form. There is no restriction of using multiple languages in a single binomial name, for example Tyrannosaurus rex, takes the Latin word tyrannus (tyrant) and combines it with the Greek word saurus (lizard) and rex (king).
There are very few restrictions on what can be a binomial name, with species named after famous people (Desmopachria barackobamai) (8), fictional characters (Otocinclus batmani) (9), places (Blatella germanica) and even jokes (Ba humbugi) (10). If a binomial name is currently in use, typically the junior taxa are renamed to something similar, usually swapping one of the components for the same word just in another language. As with the double usage of binomial names, if a lifeform is given more than one name, the oldest one takes preference, and the later names are considered junior synonyms. Length of a binomial name has a lower limit of four letters, with only two taxa possessing such short names; the great evening bat (Ia io) and the dinosaur Yi qi. While there is no upper limit for binomal name, the longest currently in use, in regards to an animal is that of the Southeast Asian soldier fly (Parastrtiosphecomyia stratiosphecmyiodes), which contains 42 letters (11).
One thing that should be considered when assigning the binomial name to a species is the gender of the words used. Because Latin, and the romance languages that evolved from it, gender their words, it is typical for the genus and species name of an organism to come from the same gender. For example, the house sparrow (Passer domesticus) has both parts of its name deemed masculine, while the sacred bamboo (Nandina domestica) has both parts of its name deemed feminine. Both domesticus and domestica translates to 'associated with the house' but the different end changes the gender. There are exceptions to the rule, some words have a neutral gender, and there are binomial names that are both masculine and feminine compartments such as Panthera leo with Panthera being feminine and leo being masculine.
So to go back to the word arctika and referee were pondering, that would be Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis, the longest word in the English language. While not binomal nomenculture perse, the Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis can be split into its component parts to give a description of, in this case, the following ailment (12).
In essence Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosistranslates to 'An affliction of the lungs caused by very small grains of volcanic silica dust', which comes to 65 characters, a full twenty more than the direct Latin translation. Quite an apt description and the answer to why we come up with names such as these.
Next week is Shocktober, so get ready for swarms of spiders, zombie ants, mind controlling wasps, the vampire of the plant kingdom and a literal rage virus. And if you want to see more amazing animals and plants, please check out the Oddity Arkive or past issues. And if you want even more animals, please check out the dearly departed Impurest Cheese's Guide to Animals, which can be found here or on the blog of 'μυθιστόρημα-εγκυκλοπαιδεία'@ficopedia.
If you still have a yearning for learning, please check out the master list of Mr Monster's Martial Arts Journey.