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

Saurus is latin for “Lizard”. Scientific names generally actually mean something, for instance Tyrannosaurus Rex means “King Tyrant Lizard”. If you looked at some modern lizards you could probably find a few that use ‘saurus’.