Day 245: Stegosauruses

Well, I've got nothing else to write tonight, so I'm going to talk about stegosauruses.

No, I'm not. I am going to talk about Stegosaurus, but I'm not going to write it "stegosauruses".

OK, so here's where I'm coming from. My cousin sent a screenshot from a listicle of "17 mind-blowing facts" or whatever to our family Whatsapp group yesterday, with the mind-blowing fact in question explaining that Stegosaurus is older than grass, which grass apparently evolved "as we know it" a good 60 million years after the last of those dinosaurs popped their scaly clogs and slid, clogless, off this mortal coil.

Which, fair enough, is mildly interesting. But here's how the listicle spelled Stegosaurus: "stegosauruses".

The writer, and pedant, and dinosaur lover, in me cannot let that stand. No way.

Dinosaur names, you see, are terms for the taxon - the label within the scheme of taxonomic classification for lifeforms - rather than for individuals within that taxon. As such they can never be plural.

Remember that old hierarchy of taxonomy from biology lessons? Life > Domain > Kingdom > Phylum > Class > Order > Genus > Species. Dinosaur names tend to refer to a species or genus. Triceratops is a genus. Tyrannosaurus rex is a species (Tyrannosaurus is the genus, and the rex suffix distinguishes the species.

There can only ever be one of each genus, or species, so the issue of how to pluralise it technically never arises.

For extant species, of course, we do have colloquial terms for groups of members of that species. So where Panthera leo and Panthera onca are the scientific names of two species in the Panthera genus, we more commonly refer to them as "lions" and "jaguars". There is only one Panthera leo, but it's fine to say "Oh, no, Dave, there are three lions charging at you right now." (Or shout, more like.)

Similarly, we ourselves belong to the species Homo sapiens (singular form, Latin for "wise man"), of the genus Homo, but we use "humans" to talk about groups of us.

For dinosaurs, however, because there are no more dinosaurs, there's never been such a pressing need to develop such a system.

Except that we're fascinated by dinosaurs, and we can't help imagining them loping about the lands. We're forever making films where they're cloned from the DNA of sap-covered mosquitoes (the family Culicidae, comprising many thousands of fly-species), or writing fantasy books where children are transported back to the Triassic era, or compiling thoughtless listicles about the temporal existence of dinosaurs in relation to grass (the family Poaceae).

And, in these cases, well, it's important to talk about herds of triceratops, or a mating pair of T-Rexes, or those three velociraptors hunting Robert Muldoon through the underbrush.

Yes, the pedantry exists because there's a genuine gap where the correct usage comes up short. This often happens when there are large numbers of people making spelling or grammar mistakes. The mistake highlights a need, and there's a change, and the language slowly evolves. That's why pedantry can so often be tedious and enervating - old bores grumpily refusing to move with the times.

But there's also a reason to uphold standards, to point out and stick to the rules. Let everything be of equal value and order quickly breaks down, you descend into chaos, and precision and discernment become impossible.

So, in summary, here is my guide to dinosaur names:

In informal conversation go wild. T-Rex, T-Rexes, stegosauruses, velociraptors, whatever floats your boat. There's no universally agreed standard for dinosaur groups, as there is with "lions" or "humans". And life's too short to pause a conversation every time you need to work out whether it's "Gerald and I" or "me and Gerald", let alone to worry about formal scientific taxonomy. Does the person to whom you're talking get your meaning? That's good enough.

In writing, however, I'd take more care. If you're writing formally, always abide by the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, and use italics and capitalisation of the first letter. Tyrannosaurus rex. Compsognathus. Velociraptor. The genus name can be abbreviated, as in T. rex, or V. mongoliensis (a species of Velociraptor), but you should never, ever, pluralise.

If your writing is less formal, on a blog like this, or in a listicle, then writing closer to speaking might be more appropriate. "The last individuals belonging to the taxon Stegosaurus roamed the Earth 60 million years before grass evolved..." is perhaps too stuffy. But "stegosauruses" will make certain people wince - especially as the plural of saurus, if you're insisting on pluralising, should be sauri.

If you're breaking the rules you should know when you're doing so, and why. It's always a compromise, so ensure you understand the trade-off, and make your choice consciously.

Signalling to your audience that you know about things like this is the best way to appear elegant, to build confidence, and thus to have your thoughts heard, trusted, and believed. A little care goes a long way.

......

Music: Pristine, by Snail Mail.