The need to know dinosaur names in mandarin

Henning: How about http://site.sinodino.com/Museum/default.htm with a cladistic overview, fossil records and everything?

can i know u ?nianyuyuyu@hotmail.com...

Joachim,
been there, done that. But he wants those really old extinct birds with the gigantic teeth.

;)

Speaking of dinosaur names, who has heard of the Aachenosaurus?

Here is what Wikipedia has to say about it:

The name Aachenosaurus refers to two fossilized fragments of material that were originally thought to be jaw fragments from a duck-billed dinosaur (a hadrosaur). However, the fossils turned out to be petrified wood, to the great embarrassment of the discoverer. The fossil's name means "Aachen lizard", named for the Aachenian deposits of Moresnet (which was a neutral territory between Belgium and Germany), where the fossils were found.

Aachenosaurus was found and named by the scientist (and abbé) Gerard Smets, on October 31, 1888, who named the type species Aachenosaurus multidens. Based on these fragments he determined that the specimen was a hadrosaur reaching an estimated 4 to 5 meters in length which might have had dermal spines. He defended this conclusion, citing that the fossils had been examined visually with the naked eye, magnifying lenses and with the microscope. However, his error was soon demonstrated by Louis Dollo. Smets at first tried to defend his original identification but was again proven wrong by a neutral commission and withdrew from science completely from pure embarrassment.

Couldn't you convince your son:

that birds are a group of theropod dinosaurs that evolved during the Mesozoic Era.

(Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Origin_of_birds)

You could then have him talk about birds ...

"Oh, look at that fearsome sparrow!"

im not sure calkins. im feeling a bit like suckedinosaurus!

but maybe im just paranoidosaurus.

i think i'll head off to see if i can't steel a few beerosauruses off pubosaurus

There have also been multiple sightings of myrannashosaurus rex, but I think (hope) they have all become extinct after the recent police change (er, I mean policy change).

Some say he is urban myth. Sightings have been reported as early as last Feb but according to legend, he was run off by ITsucksosaurus.

Hi mike,

He is an elusive and beautiful creature. And far from being extinct, he actually hasn't been born yet! But he's on his way.

The lesson on dinosaurs, on the other hand, is done and has a concrete release date. But if I told you, I'd have to shoot you!

pete

I suggest a qingqwen lesson featuring qingwenpdfosaurus

Hi henning (and your son）

Please hang in there just a bit longer. A lovely dinosaur lesson is just a few million years seconds away! ;-0

Just returned from 北戴河, where my son and I found that the channel to watch after a long beach day is CCTV 10 - they got all the dinasaur shows...

RJ,

thanks! Coelophysis sounds good - and my son already knows that species...

But still.."Getrichquicksaurus" perfectly describes the nature of the dinosaur toy business.

Henning,

If you take the first two characters separately they could mean sudden and violent followed by sharp or benefit. Maybe this guy is just an efficient predator.

There is a small hunter called Coelophysis bauri. He is a predator and bao li could be a transliteration and also convey his deadly hunting ability. After that Im out of ammunition. Good luck.

I just skyped with my son who is currently in Beijing. His 姥姥 got him a toy dinosaur and he asked me for the German name. English or German - I couldn't locate it:

暴利龙

I got the slight suspicion this might be a name invented by the supersitious toy producer (sudden huge profit Dinosaur???).

Any ideas?

BTW: Thanks, Matt! We are already counting the days (although we will probably only be able to hear it with at least a week delay - after our trip to the 北戴河 beach - yeah!!).

I too am looking forward to that. There are also a few dinosaurs where I work, but that is a different kind of ancient.

Henning, we are currently writing a UI Dinosaur lesson - just for you (and your son). I'll schedule it for the first week in August (can't do it any earlier as we've uploaded July already) :-)

Had to include this:

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_m6sVhskT_Fs/SUhbTcURsWI/AAAAAAAADWE/8kIQvex11gU/s1600-h/11_1195.jpg

Cool!

Please make it Advanced or UI so my son can listen in! He doesn't know any English apart from one line each from "Happy Birthday to you" and "What shall we do with the drunken sailer" (= Pirate music).

Henning, we will indeed have to do a lesson on this. Due to production cycles it might take a month or so but I'll make it happen. :-)

These questions just came from my son (who refuses to let me work in peace in my home office...):

Allosaurus: 异特龙

Plesiosaurus: 蛇颈龙 (OK, that one is not a real Dinosaur)

Henning,

Thanks heaps mate.One lives and learns.I was trying to use google translate to translate the English version of the wikipedia which didn't help,but your tip,well as you say...voila.I've been to Muttaburra years ago which is in outback Queensland here [way outback ] in Australia.There is nothing of interest within cooee of the joint so it almost makes one a tad sceptical that they'd have to come up with something like this to have a claim to fame,but I know it really is bone fide.

ps You're more than welcome :)

Hi babardwan,
when on the Wikipedia-Muttaburrasaurus-Page, look on the left hand side for "languages", select 中文 and voilá: You are on the 木他龙-page.

Thanks for adding another one to the list (and one that is not in my son's 400-page Dinosaur-encyclopedia).

What about Muttaburrasaurus? I'm not sure how you find these Chinese names Henning,but I had some trouble with this one as mdbg ,google translation,wikipedia [did you use some other version of wikipedia?],and a google translation of the wikipedia article all come up with zippo.However I found 木他龙 ,which appears to be a partial transliteration, from a baidu link here.

Addition. This question came up at breakfast:

Spinosaurus: 棘龙

I love how they all have the dragon character 龙.  It's hard to believe there isn't a lesson on dinosaurs. 

I second the need for that lesson...it'd be lots of fun, especially with David's great audio engineering.

Hi henning

Dinosaur names in Chinese are so "visual" that they are easy (even) for me to remember. In contrast, dinosaur names in Japanese are all clumsy transliterations of English names, as is often the case with loanwords used in Japan, and they are really tough to remember especially for old guys like me. I think that most Japanese children just learn them by rote without knowing their etymologies.

Joachim,
...what I watched was the Chinese version of the BBC series "Walking with Dinosaurs" ("Dinosaurier - Im Reich der Giganten") on Tudou.

The Chinese is 与恐龙同行. There you have Chinese subtitles and voice-overs. But I found it really, really hard to follow - both language and quality wise.

How about watching this then http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XODg2NTAxMzY=.html  - the Chinese is a bit smallish and in traditional characters, but you get the DVD with simplified characters in China, anyway :-)