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Spelling
editShouldn't Enigmosaurus be spelled Enigmasaurus? Crimsonraptor (talk) 22:10, 2 September 2010 (UTC)
- Just noticed this is one of the only dinosaur articles without any citations at all. What's up with that? For all we know, it could be called Enigmasaurus. FunkMonk (talk) 22:17, 2 September 2010 (UTC)
- It's a gender agreement thing, I think. It would be either Enigmasaura or Enigmosaurus. Abyssal (talk) 02:21, 3 September 2010 (UTC)
- You're right, there aren't any citations or references anywhere. Keeping that in mind, a search found these sites here and here. The latter has no more information than the Wikipedia article does, but at least it gives us a source for it. The former gives a little extra on why the pelvis was so peculiar. Crimsonraptor (talk) 14:23, 9 September 2010 (UTC)
- It's a gender agreement thing, I think. It would be either Enigmasaura or Enigmosaurus. Abyssal (talk) 02:21, 3 September 2010 (UTC)
- Gender agreement is only between the generic name and the specific name. The connecting vowel in Greek words is normally "o", irrespective of gender (and besides, ainigma is not an adjective but a neuter substantive and saura is not the feminine of sauros). According to the describers the name was derived from Greek αἴνιγμα but this should have resulted in an "Enigmatosaurus". The name is thus actually derived from the related form αἰνιγμός, which also means "riddle" :o).--MWAK (talk) 08:19, 5 October 2011 (UTC)
- I suppose that could be the case, thanks for the clarification :)
- Alternatively, it could just be a misspelled name that took precedence, like what happened with Ambystoma/Amblystoma. Crimsonraptor • (Contact me) Dumpster dive if you must 22:56, 9 October 2011 (UTC)
- Or just a mis-spelled name period. Nothing against those in the ICZN (see also Futalognkosaurus, Richardoestesia, Caudipteridae, etc.) It's on the author to spell/form the name correctly. If they don't, there's no corrective process--we're stuck with it (except, as noted, in cases of gender agreement between genus and species. Sinornithosaurus haoiana is incorrect for example, and as soon as somebody mentions this and spells it as s. haoianus in print, the name will have been corrected officially). MMartyniuk (talk) 12:44, 10 October 2011 (UTC)
- Gender agreement is only between the generic name and the specific name. The connecting vowel in Greek words is normally "o", irrespective of gender (and besides, ainigma is not an adjective but a neuter substantive and saura is not the feminine of sauros). According to the describers the name was derived from Greek αἴνιγμα but this should have resulted in an "Enigmatosaurus". The name is thus actually derived from the related form αἰνιγμός, which also means "riddle" :o).--MWAK (talk) 08:19, 5 October 2011 (UTC)