February 21, 2006
Nice
New Fossil Find in New Mexico Named After Artist Georgia O'Keeffe.
The newly-discovered Effigia okeeffeae actually is a relative of modern crododiles and alligators, even though it had a number of dinosaur-like attributes. It was named after O'Keeffe because the remains were discovered near her former home in New Mexico.
Yips! to Dean.
I saw that at Carl Zimmer's site a few weeks ago.
He's got a couple pictures and links to a spiffy gallery of other ancient crocodiles.
The fossil is fascinating. However, the article's explanation for the Latin name is a little dubious. Since the simplest translation is "figure or image of ," I can't help but think the paleontologists may have had a hidden agenda.
Posted by: utron at February 21, 2006 06:57 PMWell, that certainly didn't go well. My point (and I did have one) is that the fossil's name is best translated as "figure or image of Georgia O'Keeffe," which seemed like a slightly disrespectful paleontology inside joke.
And like all jokes, an excruciatingly detailed explanation does nothing to improve it.
Posted by: utron at February 21, 2006 07:01 PMActually, explaining it when we already got it makes it worse.
Just trying to help.
Posted by: Brian B at February 22, 2006 03:27 PM
Image courtesy of the lovely and talented 
