Nutty Nomenclature
All species of organism are given their own specific name by the taxonomist who first describes them. Every now and again the taxonomists allow themselves to have a little bit of fun. This is our guide to some more mischievously named species.
Name: Masiakasaurus knopfleri
Don’t get it?
1. Go buy the Dire Straits greatest hits album Money for Nothing.
2. Put CD in machine/mp3 on iPod and press play.
3. Sit back and enjoy for 66 minutes and 18 seconds.
4. Throw arms in arm and shout "Hurrah".
5. Repeat steps 2-4 as necessary.
What is it? A three-foot high, buck-toothed predatory dinosaur that was pinging about some 70 million years ago.
Where it found? Madagascar.
When was it first named? 2001.
Who deserves the credit? Scott Sampson, a Canadian palaeontologist at the University of Utah. The dinosaur got its name because Sampson's team seemed to find most fossils when Dire Straits tracks were playing in the background.
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Is there a picture? There are lots of good artistic reconstructions out there (click thumbnail to enlarge). An actual skull of the beast is on display at the Field Museum of Chicago (see image). The dinosaur is peculiar in being buck-toothed, the front six teeth on its upper and lower jaw stuck outwards. Masiakasaurus is the only dinosaur known to have this adaptation and it's thought to have helped it catch fish, which possibly made up the bulk of its diet. )){kind=link}
Check out some other weird species names here.
Null's other regular features:
Monday: Phunny Phobias
Wednesday: Doctor Doctor
Thursday: Peculiar Periodicals
Friday: End of week timewasters
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