Dinosauria Translation and Pronunciation Guide Z

Ben Creisler

Zapsalis Cope 1876 "thorough shears"

ZAP-sa-lis (Gr. za- "very, much" + Gr. psalis "cutting shears") (f) named for the blade-like shape of its teeth. [= Paronychodon]

Zephyrosaurus Sues 1980 "Zephyr's lizard"

ZEF-i-ro-SAWR-us (Zephyros, Greek god of the west wind + Gr. sauros "lizard") (m) named "in allusion to its occurrence in western North America." Ornithopoda Hypsilophodontidae E. Cret. NA.

Zigongosaurus Hou, Chao & Chu 1976 "Zigong lizard"

DZUH-GUNG-o-SAWR-us (Zigong + Gr. sauros "lizard") (m) named for the Zigong municipality in Sichuan Province, China, near where the fossil was found. [= Omeisaurus]

Zizhongosaurus Dong, Zhou & Zhang 1983 "Zizhong County lizard"

DZUH-JUNG-o-SAWR-us (Zizhong + Gr. sauros "lizard") (m) named for Zizhong County, Sichuan Province, China, where the fossil was found. Sauropoda Barapasauridae E. Jur. China

Zuniceratops Wolfe & Kirkland 1998 "Zuni horned face"

ZOO-nee-SER-a-tops (Zuni + Gr. kerat-(keras) "horn" + Gr. ops "face") (m) named to honor "the Zuni people, whose ancestral homelands include the region where the specimens were discovered"; for a primitive horned ceratopsian about the size of a ram or small calf, known from a fragmentary holotype (MSM P2101), and additional mostly disarticulated material found in the lower part of the Moreno Hill Formation (Turonian) in the Zuni Basin region of west-central New Mexico. Zuniceratops shows a mix of traits found in ceratopsids and protoceratopsids: long brow horns immediately above the orbits and teeth exhibiting a wear pattern with vertical shear as in Ceratopsidae; but with teeth only single-rooted and forming a single replacement row, and a gracile postcranial skeleton as in protoceratopsids. The maxilla is longer and lower, and the antorbital fenestra larger, than in any other ceratopsians. Assuming the angle of deflection of the ischium corresponds with the length of its skull, Zuniceratops probably had a skull similar in relative size to that of a centrosaurine. More recent discoveries show that a large bone originally identified as a highly unusual squamosal that supposedly formed part of the frill does not belong to Zuniceratops, but comes instead from the postcranial skeleton of a new, very different kind of dinosaur that will be described soon.

The discovery of such an early form with large brow horns indicates that ceratopsian evolution is more complex and goes back further in North America than previously suspected. Zuniceratops appears to be related to the poorly known Asian form Turanoceratops as well as to the North American Ceratopsidae. The authors propose the new group Ceratopsomorpha to include all member of the Neoceratopsia with large brow horns.

Type species: Zuniceratops christopheri [kris-TOF-e-rie] Wolfe & Kirkland 1998, for Christopher James Wolfe, co-discoverer of the holotype, and son of Douglas G. Wolfe.

Ceratopsia Neoceratopsia Ceratopsomorpha Late Cretaceous (Turonian) NA. [entry added 11-98]