name changes

I know that I grew up thinking that there was one dinosaur that could fly and that was a pterodactyl. A bit of a spelling challenge but once mastered I had it for life, or so I thought.

 However the scientific community, having named the pterodactyl in the 1830s, then realised in the 1860s that there was more than one flying dinosaur so they needed a name for the order of dinosaurs, Pterosauria, and then genus names for the members of Pterosauria.  The general name is now pterosaur. The other pterosaur which caused the trouble was the pteranodon, a winged dinosaur with no teeth.  The prefix ptero- means winged and the –anodon bit means ‘toothless’. It seems that the pteranodon scooped up its prey from the water and held it in a pouch rather like a pelican’s pouch.

 We now have competing naming systems, the naming system of the scientific community and that of the community at large who have not caught up with pterosaurs and are still talking about pterodactyls.  Who knows how long it will take for the two groups to align, but my guess is that it could be some time. Once a name becomes entrenched , it is very hard to shift it.