How do you name a dinosaur?

[MUSIC]

[Tyrannosaurus rex fossil mount on display at the American Museum of Natural History, followed by a Triceratops mount on display.]

NARRATOR: Dinosaur names like Tyrannosaurus rex or Triceratops are unforgettable. But how do paleontologists–

[Closeup of identification text on the wall of a museum, reading “Khaan mckenni”.]

NARRATOR: –name a dinosaur in the first place?

[The American Museum of Natural History appears over more footage of Museum visitors walking around two large duckbilled dinosaur mounts.] 

[ROGER BENSON appears on screen. Text appears: “Roger Benson, Macaulay Curator, Division of Paleontology.”]

ROGER BENSON (Curator, Division of Paleontology): So people get quite excited by naming new species, and they want to come up with great names, and sometimes they take the inspiration–

[An image of a Pachycephalosaurus skull appears. A green line draws over the domed top of the skull, and text points to the line, reading “thick skull.”]

BENSON: –from unique features of–

[An image of a Deinonychus fossil claw appears, and a green line outlines the sickle-like shape of the claw. Text points to the green line and reads “terrible claw.”] 

BENSON: –the skeleton of the dinosaur. 

[A charcoal drawing of a Diplodocus long-necked dinosaur as it might have been alive, appears along with the text “Diplodocus.”] 

BENSON: So diplodocus, for example, 

[BENSON reappears on screen.]

BENSON: –or diplodocus, that means double beam.

[A drawing of a section of a vertebrae, with some long sections of bone hanging down below them, running along the underside of the vertebrae. Green lines outline these segments.]

NARRATOR: Diplodocus has twin segments of bone running in parallel below some of its vertebrae–hence, double beams. 

[Visitors at the Museum walk around a large Stegosaurus mount with huge triangle plates on its back. Text appears: “Stegosaurus.”] 

NARRATOR: Another example would be Stegosaurus, whose name means “roof lizard”–

[A painting of a Stegosaurus as it might have appeared alive. A green line outlines the large triangular plates sticking up on its back.]

NARRATOR: –after its shingle-like plates on its back.

[BENSON reappears on screen.]

BENSON: Sometimes they also name them after other scientists or the discoverer of the fossil skeleton.

[An illustration of a small dinosaur among plants appears, next to a photograph of a female paleontologist. Text appears: “Pendraig milnerae, Angela Milner.”] 

BENSON: So this is a mark of respect that acknowledges all the work that other people did–

[A fossil dinosaur skeleton on display at a museum somewhere appears, next to footage of a male paleontologist in a hat hammering at something. Text appears: “Vectipelta barretti, Paul Barrett.”]

BENSON: –that was instrumental to the discovery of a fossil– 

[A CT scan of a fossil appears, and a photo of a female paleontologist holding what appears to be a crocodile skull or fossil. Text appears: “Gasparinisaura cincosaltensis, Zulma Brandoni de Gasparini.”] 

BENSON: –or to advancing our understanding of the evolution of dinosaurs.

[The camera pans across rows of large dinosaur bones in the collections, while BENSON walks past.]

NARRATOR: Or sometimes, dinosaurs are named after celebrities or other sources of indirect inspiration.

[BENSON reappears on screen.]

BENSON: So there’s a dinosaur from Madagascar called Masiakasaurus knopfleri. 

[An image of a dinosaur skull appears next to footage of a man playing guitar at a concert. Text appears: “Masiakasaurus knopfleri, Mark Knopfler.”]

BENSON: They named that after the lead guitarist of Dire Straits, Mark Knopfler.

[BENSON reappears on screen.] 

BENSON: Apparently they were listening to his music at the time that the discovery was made.

[Silhouette illustrations of dinosaurs appears on screen.] 

NARRATOR: And if you’re not a die-hard Dire Straits fan, 

[Six photos of celebrities appear, over silhouettes of the dinosaurs that are named after them. Clockwise from top left: Michael Crichton, author; Luis Buñuel, filmmaker; Andrés Iniesta, athlete; Princess Sirindhorn, royalty; Clint Eastwood, actor; Confucius, philosopher.]

NARRATOR: –there are dinosaurs named after celebrities from the author of Jurassic Park, to Spanish football stars.

[Image of a dinosaur name plate, showing “wyomingensis” as part of the name.]

NARRATOR: Scientists may also name a dinosaur in a way that references the place

[An illustration of a fluffy Tyrannosaurus-like dinosaur appears, with text pointing to it that reads: “Yutyrannus; ‘feather’ (Mandarin) + ‘tyrant’ (Greek).”

NARRATOR: –or local culture where the fossil was found. 

[An illustration of a dinosaur with a long neck, but giant front arms with claws, towering over vegetation.]

BENSON: We named a giant herbivorous dinosaur from Lesotho,

[Text appears: “Ledumahadi mafube, ‘giant thunderclap’ (Sesotho)”]. 

BENSON: –Ledumahadi. And that’s Sesotho for “giant thunderclap”.

[BENSON reappears on screen.] 

BENSON: And that’s in recognition of the fact that this was a big earth-shaking animal. 

[An image of a dinosaur skull appears. Text appears: “Haya griva.”]

NARRATOR:  The dinosaur Haya griva is named after

[A smaller photo of a golden statue of a Buddhist deity appears, with text: “Hayagriva.”] 

NARRATOR: –a horse-protecting deity popular in Mongolia, where the fossil was found, 

[The statue disappears and the skull’s shape is outlined in a green line.]

NARRATOR: –and chosen due to its elongated skull, like a horse’s.

[Footage flashes between drawers of fossils and other animals, like sea urchins, lizards, and mosquitoes.]

NARRATOR: The process of naming a species of dinosaur is not unique to paleontology. It follows the same general naming practices that most of zoology uses.

[The camera pans across tools of paleontology, brushes and chisels. A young paleontologist sits on a rock and sorts through fossils by hand.] 

BENSON: People find fossils. They realize that specimen is different to other dinosaurs that have been discovered and named, 

[BENSON reappears on screen.]

BENSON: –and then they write a report of the new dinosaur, that includes

[A close-up of a hand-written tag for a dinosaur specimen in the collections.] 

BENSON: the name of that species,

[The camera pans over some open drawers of dinosaur fossils in a collections space.] 

BENSON: –and what the unique features of the species are. 

[BENSON reappears on screen.] 

BENSON: Currently there’s slightly more than 1,200 dinosaur species that have been named, and are still considered to be valid names of distinct species.

[Different genera of animals pop up, with circles containing a illustration of that type of animal, and a number indicating the number of species in that genus. In order: Danaus with a butterfly illustration and 12 species; Canis with a howling coyote and 35 species; Salvelinus with a trout and 54 species; Myotis with a bat and 140 species; Camponotus with an ant and 1000 species.]

BENSON: For lots of living animals, each genus will contain lots of separate species, 

[The other animal genera go away and we see new circles with dinosaur silhouettes in them. First, Stegosaurus with an image of a stegosaurus dinosaur and 3 species; then Triceratops with an image of a horned dinosaur and 2 species.] 

BENSON: –and that sometimes is the case with dinosaurs. But more often, 

[More genera pop up, each with only one species in them: Deinonychus, Coelophysis, Patagotitan, Oviraptor, and Ankylosaurus.]

BENSON: –every new species of dinosaur is put in its own genus.

[BENSON reappears on screen.] 

BENSON: This suggests that every species of dinosaurs is highly distinct from every other species. But in fact, some of them are quite similar to each other. And this may be a problem if we want to communicate these similarities 

[Three horned ceratopsian dinosaur skulls appear next to each other on display in the Museum’s halls.] 

BENSON: –among many dinosaur species versus–

[The skull of a small Coelophysis dinosaur and a much larger Majungasaurus appear on display in the Museum’s halls.]

BENSON: –the dinosaurs that are seriously different to each other. 

[The dinosaurs on display in the Museum halls.] 

NARRATOR: And lastly, when naming a new species,

[Museum visitors gather around a dinosaur family tree on display in the halls.]

NARRATOR: –it’s also a good idea to check if that name has already been used!

[An illustration of a dinosaur appears on screen. Text reads: “Syntarsus, ‘fused foot’”.] 

BENSON: There’s this early theropod dinosaur, Syntarsus, that was discovered in Zimbabwe.

[The illustration of the dinosaur moves off to the left, and an image of a beetle appears on the right. Text appears beneath the beetle: “Syntarsus”.]

BENSON: But it was later realized that Syntarsus was already the name of a beetle genus. So it had to be renamed.

[BENSON reappears on screen.] 

BENSON: And it was renamed by beetle taxonomists, and they didn’t like dinosaurs very much, so they called it– 

[Text appears below BENSON: “Megapnosaurus, ‘big dead reptile’] 

BENSON: –Megapnosaurus, which just means big dead reptile.

[Illustration of Megapnosaurus reappears on screen, with its new name below it. Credits roll.]