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Translate Latin names???


Moozillion

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Now that the fabulous forum denizens have given me the Latin names of some of my fossils, I have been trying to find a way to translate from Latin to English. Partly to understand the ideas behind the name as a way of understanding the animal better, and partly just for fun. I've been all over the Internet and not having much (read "any") luck, so am coming back to the source. I figure there's bound to be a book somewhere that has explanations for biological Greek and Latin names...

 

1) Anosteira maomingensis  (I'm guessing the mao refers to the late Chairman Mao? but am otherwise at a loss.)

2) Periphinctes 

3) Orudus 

4) Hybodont (shark) I know "dont" is Greek for "tooth" but unclear on the "hybo"

5) Elimia tenera

6) Pleuroceridae

7) Turritellia

 

Thanks for any clarification!

Moo 

 

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9 minutes ago, Moozillion said:

Turritellia

They are called turret shells so I believe that’s the rough translation.

“...whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been and are being evolved.” ~ Charles Darwin

Happy hunting,

Mason

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Just now, WhodamanHD said:

They are called turret shells so I believe that’s the rough translation.

Thanks, WhodamanHD! :dinothumb: That's one down...:)

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13 minutes ago, Moozillion said:

Pleuroceridae

Pleuro means side I believe. “Ceras” is Latin for wax or waxed and is very commonly used with cephalopods, perhaps due to the nacre? So should be Waxy sides.

“...whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been and are being evolved.” ~ Charles Darwin

Happy hunting,

Mason

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15 minutes ago, Moozillion said:

Orudus

Orodus is Greek for “Mountain Tooth” methinks, Oro or Oreo meaning Mountain, Odus meaning tooth.

“...whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been and are being evolved.” ~ Charles Darwin

Happy hunting,

Mason

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18 minutes ago, Moozillion said:

Hybodont

Hybo = hump/humped?

“...whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been and are being evolved.” ~ Charles Darwin

Happy hunting,

Mason

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21 minutes ago, Moozillion said:

...I figure there's bound to be a book somewhere that has explanations for biological Greek and Latin names...

 

 

Yes, there is!  Here is the all-time classic lexicon:

 

Brown, R.W. 1956

Composition of Scientific Words.

Smithsonian Institution Press, 882 pp.  LINK

 

It is an indispensable go-to reference book on my library shelf.

Roland Brown was also a brilliant paleobotanist and geologist. 

image.png.a84de26dad44fb03836a743755df237c.png

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Try breaking up the names into their parts then search for the part. You know what dont is now look up hybo. For example; look up pluero then ceri. The dae ending means that it belongs to a family. You may have to read the original paper where the fossil was described to get the meaning or translation.

 

Here is a good book by Williams: https://books.google.com/books?id=uiyTnq-tF0AC&pg=PA98&lpg=PA98&dq=hybo+humped&source=bl&ots=sVt3R0vwuU&sig=5iqCy7YtfyZMvcoppzs-xeebXgI&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjPst7Hu7TdAhWJ458KHZlmDCMQ6AEwCnoECAUQAQ#v=onepage&q=hybo humped&f=false

My goal is to leave no stone or fossil unturned.   

See my Arizona Paleontology Guide    link  The best single resource for Arizona paleontology anywhere.       

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2 hours ago, Moozillion said:

maomingensis

Type of name honored to a place. maoming- is the city of Maoming, China and -ensis is Latin for "from". So it literally means "from Maoming". Any nomenclature that ends in -ensis is almost always referring to a specific location, and most of the time the actual modern name of it is used (There are some exceptions. Sometimes other subjects can be used. For example, vraconensis is not a reference to a location but to a time period, the Vraconian stage)

 

2 hours ago, Moozillion said:

Orudus 

oru- appears to be short for the Latin aurum, which translates to gold. Other Roman languages with the same/similar root gives it the same meaning. -dus is a short for the Greek ὀδούς (odus) meaning "tooth". ὀδούς also has an alterative variation odon, which is why nomenclature with either -odon or odus or even -odens all means "tooth". So the name probably means "gold tooth".

 

2 hours ago, Moozillion said:

Hybodont

The only interpretation for hybo- I know of means "hump", and -odont of course means tooth. So it means "humped tooth".

 

2 hours ago, Moozillion said:

Pleuroceridae

pleuro- is derived from the Greek πλευρόν (pleuron) meaning "rib" or "side" ("side" is much more prevalent in interpretation). ceri- is a variation of the Latin ceras meaning "wax", and -idae is probably a variation of -ides meaning "similar to" or "like". So it probably means "smooth wax-like"

 

2 hours ago, Moozillion said:

Elimia tenera

Elimia seems to be a name, a variation of "Emily" adjusted for nomenclature.  tenera seems to be a Latin word meaning "loving (adjective)", so I guess it means "Loving Emily" :wub:.

This type of naming seems unorthodox, but there are many cases where scientific names have absolutely no reference to the actual species, but completely to someone, sometimes not using classical grammar. The best one I can think of would be the Jurassic dinosaur literally named Drinker (named after Edward Drinker Cope. In Stever Parker's encyclopedia DINOSAURUS, the author even joked "A strange name for this small lizard does not suggest an especially thirsty reptile...").

2 hours ago, Moozillion said:

Periphinctes 

Periphin- is probably derived from the Greek work περιφέρεια (periphereia) meaning "circumference". I don't know what -ctes means.

 

2 hours ago, Moozillion said:

Turritellia

turri- is derived from the Latin word turris which translates to tower. -ella is a Latin diminutive suffix. So basically it's a "tower"

If you're a fossil nut from Palos Verdes, San Pedro, Redondo Beach, or Torrance, feel free to shoot me a PM!

 

 

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ceras(keras): Greek for "horn (as in "goats").

Ammonites resemble ram's horns.

A considerable portion of Linnean binomials consist of (latinized) Greek.

Common: a taxon named after the discoverer of the fossil, after the provider of the first detailed description, their spouses/ friends, and loved ones,

guitar players & musicians (Progrock lover paleo-ichthyologist Carnevale being a well known perp , eg Zappaichthys ), anatomical peculiarities, apomorphies,

resemblances to other species(homeomorphies), notable absence of features, resemblances to manmade objects, references to behaviour, ecology, substrate preferences, stratotypical layers, stratigraphy or geographical locations, and esthetics. ("mirabilis") 

tenera: thin (as in "slender")(but i could be wrong: (tenuus, I suppose?)

I think the taxon referred to is Perisphinctes.

"Orudus" doesn't seem to exist, BTW.

 

 

 

 

 

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13 minutes ago, Macrophyseter said:

and -idae is probably a variation of -ides meaning "similar to" or "like".

The ending idae means that the taxon is a family. See: https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/-idae

 

Out of curiosity have you taken Greek or Latin in school? You do a good job posting relevant info. Thanks.

My goal is to leave no stone or fossil unturned.   

See my Arizona Paleontology Guide    link  The best single resource for Arizona paleontology anywhere.       

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Just now, DPS Ammonite said:

The ending idae means that the taxon is a family

That is true, but I was focusing on the absolute literal meaning. Probably should have mentioned that too.

 

1 minute ago, DPS Ammonite said:

Out of curiosity have you taken Greek or Latin in school?

Strangely, no, I simply had an obsession over biological nomenclature etymology since two years ago :P

If you're a fossil nut from Palos Verdes, San Pedro, Redondo Beach, or Torrance, feel free to shoot me a PM!

 

 

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8 minutes ago, Macrophyseter said:

Strangely, no, I simply had an obsession over biological nomenclature etymology since two years ago :P

I took Latin at a Jesuit school. I enjoy using it to figure out the meanings of scientific names and words much more than using it to read the love poetry of Sappho of Lesbos Island.

My goal is to leave no stone or fossil unturned.   

See my Arizona Paleontology Guide    link  The best single resource for Arizona paleontology anywhere.       

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WOW!!!!!!:yay-smiley-1:

You guys/gals are A.MAZ.ING!!!!!!!

THANK you, AGAIN, WhodamanHD!

THANK you, piranha!

THANK you, Macrophyseter!

THANK you, DPS Ammonite!

THANK you, doushantuo! 

 

The only languages I took were French (in high school), German (in college) and medical Greek and Latin in Med school. I would have thought my medical Greek and Latin would have helped more- it does help SOME- but things like "cough, diarrhea and rash" don't seem to show up in fossil nomenclature!!!!!:) I'm studying Sanskrit now, but it also does not apply to fossil nomenclature! :ighappy:

 

Oh, and THANKS, DPS Ammonite: I ordered a scientific names book from Amazon! (I've already forgotten which one, because I'm in a bit of a rush...)

TTFN- You guys ROCK (in more ways than one!)

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12 hours ago, WhodamanHD said:

Pleuro means side I believe. “Ceras” is Latin for wax or waxed and is very commonly used with cephalopods, perhaps due to the nacre? So should be Waxy sides.

Careful when you make assumptions without knowing a whole lot about Latin and Latinized Greek. Many of the base words change drastically when merged together into the final form. While "ceras" may mean wax in Latin, "keras" is Ancient Greek for "horn/projection" which can be Latinized as "ceras" (lest we forget everybody's favorite Triceratops "three-horned-face").

 

I'm curious as to why you are interested into the etymology Pleuroceridae as a google search seems to be a family of freshwater snails based on the genus Pleurocera. I would presume you are more interested in the fossil ammonite genus Pleuroceras which seems to be in the family Amaltheidae (more than I knew personally without researching on the internet). This genus was named by Hyatt back in 1868 which makes research into the underlying naming rather difficult as it is usually near impossible to dig up the original description online. Back in the day they often had rather skimpy (by today's standards) descriptions of species and often did not include the reasoning behind coining a new genus name. Either it was just "understood" at a time when the other learned readers of the day also were well versed in Latin and Greek or they were lazy and just didn't think the reader needed to know the etymology. These days most scientific papers introducing new species tend to have an "Etymology" section where the reasoning behind the new name is expressly stated so there is no confusion later.

 

In addition to "pleuro" having the definition "side/lateral" it is also used for the meaning "rib". Looking at this genus of ammonites it appears that one of the distinctive features are the strong ribs in the shell along the sides. It is entirely possible that "Pleuroceras" refers to those ribs projecting out. The original description by Hyatt back in 1868 seems to have been printed in Harvard's Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology. If you had the desire and means to pursue this you could either look for this original publication (online or in person in a large research library). Other options would be to hope for publications like this one which likely includes the original description of this genus (Yorkshire Type Ammonites):

 

https://books.google.com/books?id=5Pk1rgEACAAJ&dq=Yorkshire+Type+Ammonites&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwibjMz-2bXdAhUStlkKHYbfDxIQ6AEIJzAA

 

The point of all this is to say that while books on Latin and Greek terms used in scientific names are very useful to gain a better understanding on these sometimes impenetrable words, they need to be used with care and caution. Creating a label for your Pleuroceras ammonite with the common name translation "waxy sided ammonite" may cause some embarrassment if one day you are visited by someone with greater knowledge who wonders about the meaning of the label when genus may possibly translate to something totally different like "ammonite with projecting ribs".

 

I've been an editor for marine life field guide books that friends of mine publish. Often we'd picture a species that had no common name in current use and we'd have to coin a common name for the creature (an obscure fish or marine invertebrate). I'd look into the translation of the species name to see if there was any help in identifying the distinctive feature that the scientist used in giving it it's official name. It was sometimes possible that a species named "rubropunctata" might very well be a fine "Red Spotted" something or another. Other times the specific name referred to such a subtle characteristic that it was useless as a foundation for an acceptable common name for a field guide.

 

Caution is always advised when digging into the reasoning behind why someone chose to construct a particular Latinized scientific name.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

 

Pleuroceras.jpg

 

Hyatt.png

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I rather like the name Turritella meaning 'little tower.' 

Very sweet. :) 

Like Fenestella meaning 'little windows' ( a lovely bryozoan)

 

Life's Good!

Tortoise Friend.

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3 hours ago, digit said:

Pleuroceridae

Elimia tenera (the species in “turritella agate”) is in that family.

 

I do not claim to be well versed in Greek nor Latin.

“...whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been and are being evolved.” ~ Charles Darwin

Happy hunting,

Mason

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17 hours ago, Moozillion said:

Now that the fabulous forum denizens have given me the Latin names of some of my fossils, I have been trying to find a way to translate from Latin to English. Partly to understand the ideas behind the name as a way of understanding the animal better, and partly just for fun. I've been all over the Internet and not having much (read "any") luck, so am coming back to the source. I figure there's bound to be a book somewhere that has explanations for biological Greek and Latin names...

 

1) Anosteira maomingensis  (I'm guessing the mao refers to the late Chairman Mao? but am otherwise at a loss.)

2) Periphinctes 

3) Orudus 

4) Hybodont (shark) I know "dont" is Greek for "tooth" but unclear on the "hybo"

5) Elimia tenera

6) Pleuroceridae

7) Turritellia

 

Thanks for any clarification!

Moo 

 

 

We've talked about the topic of scientific names a few times in the past.  This thread is one I recall:

 

 

 

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17 hours ago, piranha said:

 

 

Yes, there is!  Here is the all-time classic lexicon:

 

Brown, R.W. 1956

Composition of Scientific Words.

Smithsonian Institution Press, 882 pp.  LINK

 

It is an indispensable go-to reference book on my library shelf.

Roland Brown was also a brilliant paleobotanist and geologist. 

 

A book I found while standing in line in my college bookstore is this:

 

Borror, D.J.  1960.

Dictionary of Word Roots and Combining Forms.  Mayfield Publishing Company.  134 pages.

 

It was in its 11th printing in 1971 and has been my go-to when looking up names.

 

Jess

 

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My favorite is "ponderosa."  I have numerous Vinlandostrophia ponderosa a brachiopod from the Upper Ordovician of Ohio AND Exogyra ponderosa an oyster from the Upper Cretaceous of Texas. Both are LARGE,  HEAVY species within their genus. Ponderus in the extreme.

 

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I'm especially intrigued by the name: Perisphinctes promiscuus!

Like, just how would anyone KNOW if these little guys were "promiscuus"??????? :headscratch:

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10 minutes ago, Moozillion said:

I'm especially intrigued by the name: Perisphinctes promiscuus!

Like, just how would anyone KNOW if these little guys were "promiscuus"??????? :headscratch:

Perisphinctes means 'tightly bound' and promiscuus " taken from any group, or doing something without any special selection." 

Could also be interpreted as 'mixed'. 

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