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PZ Myers is a biologist and associate professor at the University of Minnesota, Morris.
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« Open season on fresh meat | Main | Texas has a problem »

Now, at last, you know what my initials really stand for

Category: Art
Posted on: January 13, 2009 9:27 AM, by PZ Myers

Check it out — it's the Paleobet!

It is a little awkward to discover this late in life that the "p" is silent.

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Comments

Posted by: Nerd of Redhead | January 13, 2009 9:34 AM

Lets see, that makes me Doedicurus Laggania.

Posted by: Ricardo Silvestre | January 13, 2009 9:37 AM

Hence forth you will be known as (…)Z Myers

Mr Data, make it so

Posted by: S.Scott | January 13, 2009 9:55 AM

His 'P' is silent - but apparently I stutter.

Posted by: Zeno | January 13, 2009 9:57 AM

Oh, I think we can agree that the P is never silent around here.

Hey, I just got my hands on the latest issue of Answers magazine from Answers in Genesis. Darwin is their cover boy -- and it's all about combating the celebration of Darwin's bicentennial with the truth. As they see it, of course. They exhort "good people" to oppose evolution. Pity, that. Most of the good people I know are evolutionists.

Posted by: PGPWNIT | January 13, 2009 10:09 AM

'F' is the Fuck You Raptor.

I wonder if Randall Munroe is aware.

Posted by: recovering catholic | January 13, 2009 10:10 AM

Charming illustrations! I hope she does a children's ABC book with them...my boys would have loved this when they were growing up.

Posted by: Falconer | January 13, 2009 10:18 AM

"'F' is the Fuck You Raptor."

Huh, I thought it was an exotic specimen found in Japan and named after the deadly pufferfish.

I guess I was naive. Those palaeontologists sure are potty mouths!

Posted by: JC DiStefano | January 13, 2009 10:18 AM

We have it easy with just two letter names! Although next time I'm subjected to the inevitable question of what my initials stand for, I'll tell them Jobaria Calymene.

Posted by: Enshoku | January 13, 2009 10:23 AM

@#5

that is what happens when scientists are intoxicated, and need to name a new fossil.

#10

Posted by: djw | January 13, 2009 10:24 AM

Are both "P"s silent?

#11

Posted by: Steve | January 13, 2009 10:25 AM

Apparently, I'm Doedicurus Smilodon, which would make me a sabre-toothed armadillo or something.

Hmm.

#12

Posted by: AJS | January 13, 2009 10:25 AM

the "p" is silent

That's because you're a bloke .....

#13

Posted by: NewEnglandBob | January 13, 2009 10:34 AM

PZ, do you really want to be known as a fish-rat????

#14

Posted by: Randy | January 13, 2009 10:35 AM

So, PZ - or should I say _Z - you're like Psmith?

#15

Posted by: SASnSA | January 13, 2009 10:45 AM

So you'd pronounce the name of that first critter p'terasis? I never realized that. ;)

#16

Posted by: culmastadm | January 13, 2009 10:49 AM

I thought it meant Psoriasis Zombie Meyers. That totally made sense to me.

I do not accept this new information.

#17

Posted by: Sclerophanax | January 13, 2009 10:54 AM

What? Clearly no feathers on Utahraptor! Boo! Hiss!

Seriously though, these are really cute, and I like the variety of paleofauna used. I wonder if my sister would object too much if I used them to teach her son the alphabet? :)

#18

Posted by: Robert | January 13, 2009 11:02 AM

The "p" is silent - as in swimming pool...

#19

Posted by: Bill Dauphin | January 13, 2009 11:12 AM

Jebus... only 18 comments, and already 2 of you have beaten me to the P/pee joke. [sigh]

#20

Posted by: culmastadm | January 13, 2009 11:14 AM

Hahaha, Ratfish. Great.

Still, I have to find a copy of this for my daughter's room. Maybe KnowPlace sells them.

#21

Posted by: Jackal | January 13, 2009 11:15 AM

That's nice, but what I'd like to see is an app where you enter your initials and it gives you a genus and species with the same initials. For example, Homer Simpson might get "Homo sapiens."

#22

Posted by: Jim Baerg | January 13, 2009 11:24 AM

I'm always amused when I see one of the Burgess Shale creatures & realize the origin of the name.
Eg: Laggans was an early name for the village of Lake Louise & there is now a Laggans Bakery there. Also there is a Mount Wapta & the Wapta icefields near the Burgess Shale fossil site.

I have a bunch of photos from hiking & ski trips in the area.

Jobaria Raphus Bifericeras
51° N 114° W

#23

Posted by: ctenotrish | January 13, 2009 11:39 AM

I like the paleobet very much! If I go with my nickname, Trish, I am Telicomys Laggania Calymene. But with my proper first name (Patricia) I get to be all marine, all the time, as Pteraspis Laggania Calymene. That make me happy, even if the P is silent. :)

#24

Posted by: Slaughter | January 13, 2009 11:47 AM

"It is a little awkward to discover this late in life that the 'p' is silent."

Not when I pronounce it!

Griphognathus Hesperornis Hesperornis

#25

Posted by: Thomas R. Holtz, Jr. | January 13, 2009 11:48 AM

Fukuiraptor is pronounced "foo-koo-ee-rap-tor", named after Fukui Prefecture in which it was found.

#17 Sclerophanax: not only unfeathered Utahraptor, but the dread spectre of Jurassic Park style "bunny hands" mars it and Fukuiraptor. For Darwin's sake, folks, it is palms inward, not palms down!!

Telicomys Raphus Hesperornis

#26

Posted by: E.V. | January 13, 2009 11:55 AM

-36 below in Minnesota? PZ, are you frozen solid?

#27

Posted by: Andreas Johansson | January 13, 2009 12:45 PM

Apparently I'm Archaeopteryx Jobaria. You gotta admit there's something awesome about a flying feathered sauropod.

#28

Posted by: Voting Present | January 13, 2009 12:48 PM

Ugh! Sorry to bother everyone, but I just had to argue global warming denialist hogwash with a coworker.

Strib poll Is the Earth warming or cooling?

It's cooling 36.1 %
Neither. It's still its steady old self 39.1 %
It's warming 24.6%

Anyone want to try fixing that?
.

#29

Posted by: David Marjanović, OM | January 13, 2009 1:16 PM

Anyone want to try fixing that?

Looks like I'd need to create a login & password.

#30

Posted by: Jim | January 13, 2009 1:25 PM

You should alert the Catholics who have been using your full name in their terrifying emails. There's a group who loves to be corrected.

#31

Posted by: Carlie | January 13, 2009 1:41 PM

No paleo plants. Hmpf.

#32

Posted by: Qwerty | January 13, 2009 2:26 PM

I am a KENtrosaurus but I have to get back to my JOBaria!

#33

Posted by: Otto | January 13, 2009 2:35 PM

"Put a creationist dentist in charge of the educational system"

There is method to this madness, it provides plenty
of docile and devout recruits for the armed forces.

#34

Posted by: Otto | January 13, 2009 2:38 PM

Sorry, my previous post got missposted.

#35

Posted by: Leboyfriend | January 13, 2009 2:41 PM

The 'p' is silent. As in 'swimming'. This is a joke my grandmother thought hilariously funny back in the 1950's.

#36

Posted by: Moggie | January 13, 2009 2:44 PM

Teaching kids about the letter 'P' using a word with a silent 'P': does that count as child abuse?

#37

Posted by: Bride of Shrek OM | January 13, 2009 2:54 PM

...but I named my third child "Paul Zachary" in your honour and NOW you're telling me its not your real name.

Boy is she gonna be pissed when she grows up and I tell her.

#38

Posted by: arvind | January 13, 2009 5:27 PM

Apparently I'm Archaeopteryx Jobaria. You gotta admit there's something awesome about a flying feathered sauropod.

Ha! Archaeopteryx Kentrosaurus Bifericeras here. Let's see if anyone can out-awesome a flying cephalopod with spiked armor!!

#39

Posted by: Caine | January 13, 2009 5:52 PM

Heh, cool. I'm Calymene Hesperornis Fukuiraptor. Now that's a name!

#40

Posted by: Rachel | January 13, 2009 6:19 PM

Too bad they left the 'd' out of 'Zalambdalestes...'

#41

Posted by: Chris | January 13, 2009 6:30 PM

At first those pictures made me want a pet indricotherium, but it appears that plan is slightly impractical. Where would I keep a pet that's 5.5 m tall at the shoulder, over a meter taller than the largest recorded elephant (and has a neck and head that can stretch even higher than that)? I'd have a bit of trouble patting him on the head when his head was 8 meters off the ground.

My last name does entitle me to the only cephalopod on the list, Bifericeras, though. I wonder if PZ is jealous...

#42

Posted by: teucer | January 13, 2009 7:07 PM

'aleobet?

#43

Posted by: John Scanlon FCD | January 13, 2009 8:32 PM

Nobody's yet pointed out the spelling error in Zalambddalestes. I didn't spot any others in the 'bet, though.

#44

Posted by: Alan Kellogg | January 13, 2009 10:44 PM

About that silent 'p'. Ancient Greek did have a 'pt' sound. Modern English doesn't. So we decided to drop the 'p' in 'pt' and get on with life.

#45

Posted by: Indricotherium | January 14, 2009 12:43 AM

Alas, I am no longer a valid genus, but my new "older" name Paraceratherium would be a great "P" for you PZ!

#46

Posted by: Samantha Vimes | January 14, 2009 4:55 AM

If I'd found a carnivorous bipedal dinosaur fossil in Japan that was that large, it wouldn't be the fukuiraptor, it would be gojiraraptor.

#47

Posted by: Kobra | January 14, 2009 8:47 AM

Smilodon Megaloceros Archaeopteryx...

#48

Posted by: Thomas R. Holtz, Jr. | January 14, 2009 8:53 AM

#46 Samantha Vimes:

Actually, there IS a dinosaur Gojirasaurus, but it is a) from the American Southwest and b) not particularly large (although it was one of the largest Late Triassic carnivorous dinosaurs, but that is damned by faint praise). It is of course named after Gojira; its describer, Ken Carpenter, was inspired to become a paleontologist when his mother took him to see the original movie when he was young.

#49

Posted by: Rosemary Mosco | January 14, 2009 3:25 PM

Thanks for the link, and thanks so much for the suggestions and corrections, everybody! Forgive me on the raptors -- I'm a Cambrian gal at heart, but I'll learn :)

#50

Posted by: Mena | January 14, 2009 4:00 PM

Rosemary, great job! I particularly like the Cambrian cartoon. I was tempted to do something like that but I really don't have the imagination. Will you be doing more?

#51

Posted by: 'Tis Himself, OM | January 14, 2009 10:13 PM

Where's the paleo-Irishman, Peter O'Dactyl?