Taxonomy Tuesday: Snakes are lizards

Snek

I'm trying something new in an effort to post more often then once a month.

Once a week, on "Taxonomy Tuesday," I'll write a short post about some taxonomic weirdness that people might not think about. On this maiden voyage of "Taxonomy Tuesday," we'll talk about snakes...which are lizards.

Titanosaur Heads

Illustration by "Stocktrek Images, Inc."

Sauropods are among the most familiar of all dinosaurs—consider that pretty much everybody knows Brontosaurus or Brachiosaurus. But what may surprise you is that most sauropods are known from fairly scant remains—isolated vertebrae or pieces of the axial skeleton. Brontomerus was named for, essentially, an incomplete ilium and scapula. Argentinosaurus, one of the largest tetrapods that ever lived, was named for a series of vertebrae, ribs, and a fibula. But you know what’s most often missing from a sauropod skeleton? The head.

Taxonomic Messes

In his recent Princeton Field Guide to Dinosaurs, Greg Paul did something interesting: he sank most of the Centrosaurinae into Centrosaurus. Thus, instead of Styracosaurus albertensis, you now have Centrosaurus albertensis. Where once there was Pachyrhinosaurus lakustai, there is now only Centrosaurus lakustai. This seems ridiculous on the face of it, but Paul's justification is not entirely off-kilter: he surmises that the Centrosaurinae exhibits as much or less variation than is found between different species of Varanus. But that comparison is, in itself, completely arbitrary. The taxonomy of living animals--and especially living reptiles--is dictated by an entirely separate group of specialists. If paleontologists were in charge of Varanus, it might well be divided into separate genera. Herpetologists (and Greg Paul) are especially fond of subgenera, whereas as I believe that subgenera are confusing and unnecessary.

Place Name-o-saurus

Albertosaurus, a tyrannosaur from Alberta, in case that wasn't clear.

All of these fossil animal names have something in common. Can you guess what it is?

Albertosaurus, Albertaceratops, Albertonykus, Albertonectyes, Edmontosaurus, Edmontonia, Agujaceratops, Coahuilaceratops, Judiceratops, Utahraptor, Utahceratops, Alaskacephale, Sinosauropteryx, Sinornithosaurus, Sinovenator, Sinocalliopteryx, Sinornis, Sinoceratops, Huaxiagnathus, Huaxiaosaurus, Qianzhousaurus, Zhuchengceratops, Zhuchengtyrannus, Montanoceratops, Argentinosaurus, Nigersaurus, Aegyptosaurus, Brasilotitan, Gondwanatitan, Panamericansaurus, Gobisaurus, Afrovenator, Antarctopelta, Europelta, Europasaurus, Hungarosaurus, Hatzegopteryx, Santanadactylus, Santanaraptor, Santanachelys