Bi Di Miss American Pie: Number Two Greek and Latin Roots!

A little while ago, I started a new series all about the Latin and Greek roots in the scientific names of different animals!  IN THE LAST POST, we examined animals with the Greek and Latin roots for "one," and today, we are going to kick it up a notch: exactly one notch, to be precise!  Today, we are going to examine the roots for the word "two!"  Let's begin with the cardinal (i.e. one, two three, etc.) form in Greek!  There are actually several roots that work here, but the one most commonly seen in binomial nomenclature is the root "di!"  Let's DIve right in!

• Our first "di" today is a small flying creature called Dimorphodon, a member of the extinct group of reptiles called pterosaurs.  The name "Dimorphodon" comes from three roots, "di," "morph," and "don."  "Di," of course, means "two."  In this context, the root word "morph" means "form."  In mythology and fantasty, a being that can take more than one form is often said to be able to morph their appearance.  Finally, the root word "don" is one of my favorites (and is used a whole lot in giving animals their scientific names): it means "tooth."  Altogether now: two-form tooth.  This name refers to the fact that Dimorphodon actually has two different types of teeth in its jaw.  For mammals, that's nothing special, but amongst reptiles, that is pretty rare!

• Dimetrodon-another animal with two kinds of teeth!  "Di" and "don" still mean the same thing as they did in Dimorphodon (above), but there is a new root in between: "metro."  For this root, think of the term "metric."  The name "Dimetrodon" actually means "two measures of teeth!"  Dimetrodon's two types of teeth would, in the groups that it is ancestral to, one day evolve to become the varied types of teeth that we see in the mouths of mammals!  Dimetrodon is more closely related to mammals than it is to any group of living reptile, and all of us mammals did evolve from a Dimetrodon-like ancestor!  So remember, if anyone ever tells you that Dimetrodon is a dinosaur, tell them that Dimetrodon actually lived around 40 million years before the first dinosaur ever walked the Earth!  That'll show them.

Dimetrodon (left) attacks the primitive amphibian Eryops.  Much like in the skull of Dimorphodon, you can clearly see the much larger teeth in the front of the skull and the smaller teeth in the back of the skull of Dimetrodon.

• Let's travel forward to the Late Cretaceous Period, time of Tyrannosaurus and Triceratops, to meet Didelphodon, a primitive mammal about the size of the living Virginia opossum!  As a matter of fact, it is from the opossum that Didelphodon gets its name: "Didelphodon" translates to "opossum tooth," as Didelphis is the genus name for the Virginia opossum and several related species of opossum!  In turn, "Didelphis" means "double womb," which presumably refers to the fact that the opossum, like all marsupials, has its internal reproductive tracts where the baby will develop for a bit, and its external pouch, where the baby will develop until full term.  

• A fourth animal with "two" and "tooth" in its name is Diprotodon!  The middle root, "pro," in this name means "forward," like the word "proceed."  So the name "Diprotodon" actually means "two forward teeth."  A quick examination of the skull of this massive mammal quickly reveals why!  Although it looks like it might be some sort of ungodly large rodent, Diprotodon is actually a hippopotamus-sized wombat, the largest marsupial known to have walked the Earth!

• Diceratops is a genus of ceratopsian dinosaur that is often considered to actually be a Triceratops.  The name, which means "two-horned face," was later discovered to already belong to a type of insect, and changed to the name Nedoceratops.  Some other paleontologists believe that Nedoceratops is really the same animal as Triceratops, but I don't really know enough about Nedoceratops to have an informed opinion on the matter.  However, paleontologist Jack Horner believes that Nedoceratops is an intermediate growth form between Triceratops and Torosaurus, and since I don't agree with his ideas of Triceratops ontogeny and that I think Triceratops and Torosaurus are definitely distinct dinosaurs, that leads me to suspect that Nedoceratops is more likely distinct, and certainly doesn't bridge the gap between Triceratops and Torosaurus.

• The name of Diplodocus, which means "double beam" originates from the two rows of chevron that are on the underside of the animal.  This was originally thought to be a feature unique to Diplodocus, a defining characteristic that would set it apart from other closely related sauropods.  Since Diplodocus was named by paleontologist Othniel Charles Marsh in the late 1800s, this feature has since been discovered on a number of other sauropods, including Barosaurus, also from the Morrison Formation, like Diplodocus.

• Dilophosaurus, one of the stars of the original Jurassic Park movie, gets its name from the two crests on its head.  Last time, we met Monolophosaurus, which means "single-crested lizard."  Therefore, Dilophosaurus means "two-crested lizard!"  

While it is the Greek cardinal root for "two" that is used most frequently in binomial nomenclature, it is the Latin root that is most often used for multiples (i.e. once, twice, thrice, etc.), the root "bi."  You can probably think of several words right off the top of your head that use this root!  In fact, the word "biped," used to describe creatures that walk on two feet (as opposed to, say, a quadruped), comes from the two roots "bi" and "ped," with "ped" meaning "foot" in Latin.  So literally, "biped" means "two feet!"  Let's look at a few more!

• Marshosaurus bicentesmus - A theropod dinosaur from the Morrison Formation (one who has received "Full-Post Status," as you can see by clicking HERE).  The exact relationships of Marshosaurus to other theropods isn't exactly clear, but some people think it might even be some sort of primitive coelurosaur, while others think it is more closely related to Megalosaurus and kin.  Regardless of its phylogenetic relationships, the name of Marshosaurus is quite exciting!  The genus name "Marshosaurus" honors the famous paleontologist Othniel Charles Marsh, who did a lot of work in the Morrison Formation.  The species name "bicentesmus" refers to the fact that the species was described in 1976, the bicentennial of the United States.  The bicentennial is, of course, a 200 year anniversary, and the "bi" in the name distinguishes a 200 year anniversary from a 100 year anniversary, or a centennial.

Here are two shots of a specimen of Marshosaurus that were on display in the lab at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science last year.  This first picture is the right maxilla, which would have made up part of the front section of the animals snout.

Here we have more of the same specimen, on display at the same time and the same place.  You can see several vertebrae and ribs in this shot.

• Baeolophus bicolor - This is the scientific name of the tufted titmouse, a small woodland bird native to much of the eastern half of the United States.  These little birds live in holes in trees that have been abandoned by woodpeckers, and are closely related to chickadees and, of course, the other titmice.  I couldn't figure out what the genus name "Baeolophus" means, but it is pretty apparent that the species name "bicolor" refers to the fact that this little bird is gray on its back, and white on its underside.  Some of the other species in the genus, such as the juniper titmouse (Baeolophus ridgwayi), are simply all gray.  

• Diceros bicornis - Here we have the scientific name of the black rhinoceros, a "Critically Endangered" species of African rhino.  According to some sources, the black rhino often prefers to eat Acacia leaves, presumably employing its prehensile upper lip to avoid the plants thorns.  The black rhino has pretty poor vision, with much better auditory and olfactory sensing capabilities.  Humans are easily the most dangerous threat to the black rhinoceros, with lions and the spotted hyena occasionally taking young black rhinos as prey, and even more rarely attacking adults.  The scientific name of the black rhinoceros literally means "two-horn two-horn."  As we have already established, both "di" and "bi" are roots that mean two.  Both "ceros" and "corn" are roots that refer to horns: think "Triceratops" for ceros (three-horned face), and "unicorn" for corn (one-horn).  

Works Cited:

Introduction to Latin and Greek Roots and the Number One!

When it comes to giving an organism a scientific name, many languages can be used to construct the two part name (consisting of the genus name and the species name), but it must be in the Latin grammatical form.  For example: a long time ago, last July, I wrote a post about some fun scientific names: click HERE to check it out!  One of the animals that we talked about is an interesting theropod dinosaur from Madagascar.  Named Masiakasaurus knopfleri, this dinosaurs name roughly translates to "vicious lizard of Knopfler."  In this case, the "Knopfler" part of the name is the surname of famous musician Mark Knopfler, and the "Masiakasaurus" part of the name is the origin of the "vicious lizard" half.  So the words in the binomial name don't have to be Latin: however, they are Latinized.  Oftentimes, Greek roots are used.

Oftentimes, you can tell a bit about an animal just from its scientific name.  I like doing this, and thought it might make for a few good posts.  We'll start easy today: let's look at the number one, in both its cardinal (i.e. one, two, three, etc.) form, as well as its multiple form (i.e. once, twice, thrice, etc.).  Many of these roots will be familiar to you, both the Latin roots and the Greek roots.  For example, the root "du" in Latin means the English equivalent of two.  Meanwhile, the Greek root is "di."  For multiples (i.e. the English equivalent of the word "twice"), you would use the Latin root "bi" or the Greek root "dis."  There are often multiple roots that mean the same thing in any given language.  For example, when using the Greek root "di" to mean two, you could instead use "dy" or "duo."  Sometimes, especially for the multiple versions of the roots, there are just not really any animals whose scientific names use them: at least, not that I could easily find.  If you want to search those animals out, by all means be my guest!

Keep in mind, however, that just because a scientific name has the letters of the root in it, doesn't necessarily that the person who originally came up with that name meant that root to be inside.  For example, the dugong, Dugong dugon, appears to have the Latin root "du" in it.  However, the true etymology stems from the Malay name for the animal, "duyung," meaning "lady of the sea."  Another example is the massive extinct penguin Pachydyptes simpsoni.  A quick look at the species name, "simpsoni," might indicate that the Latin root "sim," meaning "once" in English, is in the name: however, this penguin was actually named for the famous paleontologist George Gaylord Simpson!

Much as Pachydyptes simpsoni would have dove into the oceans off the coast of Australia, let us in turn dive into the number one!  We will start with the cardinal roots for the two languages.  First, in Latin, the root word would be "uni."  You might be thinking of "unicycle" (one wheel), or "unicorn" (one horn).  Here is an example of a biological organism with the root "uni" in its binomial name: meet Monotropa uniflora, the ghost plant!  The name genus name, Monotropa, originates from the Greek roots "mono" and "trop," meaning "once" and "turning" respectively.  Meanwhile, the species name, uniflora, means "one" and "flowered" from the roots "uni" and "flora."  We'll talk about this flower again in a few minutes.

Next, we have the Greek root for "one," which is the root word "hen."  For this root, we will look at another fascinating creature we have about!  Remember the turtle-like placodonts that we talked about in a post a few months back?  (No?  Well you better familiarize yourself with it HERE because otherwise your friends will ostracize you.)  Of these placodonts, one of them received the binomial name "turtle-faced single tooth.)  Called Henodus chelyops, the genus name, Henodus, can be broken down into the Greek roots of "hen" and "odus."  As we already talked about, "hen" means "one," and the root "odus" is the Greek root for "tooth."  (We will probably have an entire blog post just about that one root!)

Wait a second, though let's back up to the ghost plant real fast, Monotropa uniflora.  In this binomial name, the root "uni" was only used once in the binomial name, and yet the English words "once" and "one" were both contained within!  Well, this is because the root "mono" is the multiple Greek root for one!  (Remember, multiple would be like once, twice, thrice, etc.)  Here are some other examples of the root word "mono" used in a biological context:

• One of the three main groups of mammals, the monotremes, get their name from the roots "mono" and "trema," which roughly translates to "single hole."  This refers to the cloaca, a single orifice in many animals that is the only opening for the reproductive, intestinal, and urinary tracts!
• The dubious taxa of ceratopsian dinosaur called Monoclonius, whose name means "single sprout," and refers to the single horn coming out of the snout of the animal!  The remains of Monoclonius are very fragmentary, however, and some paleontologists believe that Monoclonius is simply a bunch of juvenile ceratopsian dinosaurs clumped together, such as Centrosaurus.  

• The scientific name of the narwhal is Monodon monoceros, which is double ones!  The name means one-tooth (mono-don) one-horn (mono-ceros).  The root word "ceros" might sound familiar: remember the ceratopsians?  "Ceratopsian" translates to "horned faces" (cerat=horned, tops=face).  
• This is Monolophosaurus, a Chinese theropod from the Middle Jurassic   It's name, meaning "single-crested lizard," originates from the fact that the animals head plays host to a single large crest running much of the length of the skull!

• Now this little dinosaur is QUITE the interesting fellow: little Mononykus, one of the few dinosaurs whose arms are even stranger than those of Tyrannosaurus rex!  Literally meaning "one claw," Mononykus had a single claw on its arm, and was quite interesting looking!  This three foot long dinosaur was originally named Mononychus, but the name was changed after it was discovered that name was already taken by a beetle, the iris weevil!

We ain't done yet, though!  Remember before when I mentioned that multiple roots can have the same meaning?  Well, there are two multiple Greek roots that mean one, with "mono" being one and "haplo" being the other!  Here are a pair of examples:

• The sauropod called Mongolosaurus haplodon, whose genus name refers to Mongolia and whose species name, "haplodon," translates to "single tooth."  Mongolosaurus, like Monoclonius, is a dubious taxa.

• Here's another sauropod: Haplocanthosaurus, discovered in the Morrison Formation, along with the stegosaur Hesperosaurus, the theropod Allosaurus, and another sauropod called Eobrontosaurus!  However, "Haplocanthosaurus" roughly translates to "simple spined lizard."  This is another example of a root word that has two different meanings: "haplo" can either mean "single," or "simple," making binomial nomenclature anything but.

This is a lot to process for a single post, so I think we will save the twos for next time!