why do many dinosaur names have “saurus” at the end but no current animals we’ve named have this nomenclature?

Question

Monkey, salmon, pelican, turtle, cobra, poodle, alligator, eagle, iguana, geraffe, rhinoceros….all have unique names that don’t follow any major sort of naming system. I realize these are the general names and not the true scientific names, but why are so many dinosaurs all named with saurus at the end?

In: Biology

Answer 1

Not to nitpick but “rhinoceros” actually follows a very similar naming pattern as the ‘-saurus’. “Rhino-“= nose, “-ceros” = horn. Rhinoceros = Nosehorn. Triceratops = three-horn-face. Very similar to rhinoceros.

Similarly, Tyrannosaurus = Tyrant Lizard, Stegosaurus = Roof Lizard, etc. The “-saurus” means lizard. We do still have at least one -saurus that I know of, the “Xenosaurus” (Alien/stranger/foreigner-lizard). There are 14(?) xenosauri species in Central America, last I checked.