How Do Dinosaurs Get Their Names?

Dinosaurs earn their names just like Tiny Tim, Andre the Giant and William “The Fridge” Perry.

Sadly, dino names don’t always have the same ring to them. Take Pachycephalosaurus.

“Pachy” comes from the Greek word meaning thick; “cephale” means head; and “saurus” means lizard. Mush them all together and you’ve got a lizard topped off with a stocky noggin (though nowadays, scientists no longer classify dinosaurs as lizards).

Dino names can be mixtures of Greek or Latin words that describe physical features, such as our friend above with the big head. Or they can be named after the location where scientists discovered the ancient reptile’s fossils. For instance, Albertosaurus was found in Alberta, Canada.

Sometimes dinosaurs are given the name of a person who helped dig up the old bones. Diplodocus carnegii was named for Andrew Carnegie, who funded the expedition that discovered the big sauropod.

Newly described living animals today usually are named the same way.

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