It is my favorite dinosaur, that parasaurolophus. Ain’t he cute? Partly because I just love how that word rolls off the tongue. You’ll get it…
para–like parachute
saur–like “sore”
olo–like “ah-lla”. The big accent is on the “ah” part
phus–“fuss”
para + saura + olophus
“beyond” + “lizard” + “crest”
As in, that dinosaur dude has one heavy-duty crest. It’s beyond, man!
Despite the parasaurolophus being my favorite dinosaur, I was this old when I actually wondered what it meant. I only connected the Greek root dots this morning. Now, you and I both know. You’re welcome.
Dig that Crazy Crest!
It’s a trombone. Seriously, the weird and wacky long head tube was the subject of a lot of speculation. The first parasaurolophus skeleton was discovered in 1921 up in Alberta. They spent decades wondering exactly what the crest was for. Mating calls? Fighting? There were even bizarre hypotheses, categorized under the “discarded hypothesis” section of wikipedia. Several thought it might be a breathing tube, like a snorkel. Let them wade into the copious waters of the mid-Jurassic, maybe to hide from predators. On the other hand, there were a lot of giant marine reptile predators, so not sure how that was going to help them.
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