Sun, 2010-04-25 14:09
According to this month’s Smithsonian Magazine ...
The French anatomist Georges Cuvier coined “mastodon” from the Greek word for “breast” and “tooth.” The conical ridges on the tooth in question were for grinding branches… The mammoth’s tooth was better for eating grasses.
Source: Smithsonian Magazine, April 2010, pg. 42.
So now you know.
Mastodon tooth photo by Flickr user Colin Purrington.
Used under a Creative Commons license.
Mammoth tooth photo by Flickr user jby1982.
Used under a Creative Commons license.
Well there was never any
Submitted by Red (not verified) on Sun, 2010-04-25 15:06.Well there was never any thought of making English the language of science. There WAS a time when German and Russian were both seriously considered for that role. (I can tell you that Russian has more of the virtues attributed to Latin and Greek than Latin or Greek actually does.)
I’ve also heard arguments that Tibetan, Hindi, Nepali, Bengali or Armaic would have better languages for science, than any Western tongue.
And the original scientific
Submitted by Holly Pervocracy (not verified) on Sun, 2010-04-25 19:53.And the original scientific name of Megalosaurus was “Scrotum Humanum.” Then again, there’s a number of plants and fungi named after how much they look like wieners—my favorite is the “Amorphophallus titanum,” or “giant misshapen penis.”
Not exactly scientific, but
Submitted by chingona (not verified) on Mon, 2010-04-26 06:43.Not exactly scientific, but let’s not forget the Grand Tetons.