Dinosaur gets a Kaw name (Wichita Eagle-Beacon)

[Pamela Munro]

Kind of too bad that the name as they write it has DUNG in it....:)

But this is great! Congratulations!

Pam

R. Rankin wrote:

>     Justin and I had a small hand in this.    Bob
>
>
>
>                         R E L A T E D   L I N K S
>                         •  THE NAMING OF A FOSSIL
>
>
>
>
>      Kansas lends name to extinct sea lizard
>
>      The 65-million-year-old species of ocean lizard will be
> officially named after the state this spring.
>
>      BY BECCY TANNER
>
>      The Wichita Eagle
>
>
>      It has finally happened.
>
>      Derby paleontologist Mike Everhart's 10-year quest to name a
> mosasaur fossil for Kansas has succeeded.
>
>      Tylosaurus kansasensis will become the official Latin name of a
> giant sea lizard this spring when the name is published in the
> Netherlands Journal of Geosciences.
>
>      Unofficially, this type of mosasaur -- a 25-foot-long sea lizard
> that lived in the ocean more than 65 million years ago -- will be
> known as "je-walushka-tanga" (pronounced jay wah-LOOSH-gah DUNG-gah"),
> meaning "great ocean lizard" in the language of the Kaw or Kanza tribe.
>
>      "It's nice to name a mosasaur after Kansas --  after all, Kansas
> is where most of the mosasaurs have been found," said Larry Martin,
> curator of vertebrate paleontology at the University of Kansas Natural
> History Museum.
>
>      "If you were going to pick a fossil that would typify Kansas, a
> mosasaur is a good choice."
>
>      Everhart, who serves as the adjunct curator of paleontology at
> the Sternberg Museum of Natural History in Hays, said he wanted the
> name of the fossil to reflect Kansas's heritage.
>
>      "The Indian name just makes the fossil a little more special,"
> Everhart said. "There are hundreds of different kinds of fossils
> sitting in boxes in all kinds of places. Few of them have a life of
> their own. The T. rex Sue at the Field Museum (in Chicago) is one that
> does. I want this one to also come alive in people's imagination."
>
>      This isn't the first fossil to be named "kansasensis," Everhart
> said.
>
>      At least 20 other fossils bear that name, including several
> clams, a mouse and some trilobites.
>
>      The new name also touts the state's fossil heritage and how these
> rolling farm plains were once at the bottom of a 600-foot-deep ocean.
>
>      Since the late 1860s, the Smoky Hill chalk beds of western Kansas
> have been known throughout the world for containing fossils dating to
> the Cretaceous period, nearly 87 million years ago.
>
>      The mosasaurs, some species of which could grow as long as 45
> feet, were among the most terrifying animals of their time.
>
>      "They ruled the oceans at the end of the age of the dinosaur,"
> Everhart said. "They were a big predator."
>
>      They were monsters that ate everything in their way, swallowing
> prey whole.
>
>      "In Kansas, there were more than a dozen types of mosasaurs,"
> Everhart said. "Worldwide, the number is more than 40."
>
>      This particular species of mosasaur has been found only in
> Kansas, he said, and has been unnamed for nearly 140 years. There are
> 13 known specimens of this type of mosasaur -- nine of which are in
> the Sternberg Museum's collection in Hays.
>
>      Anyone can name an unnamed fossil, Everhart said. But a name
> gains credibility only when it is published in a recognized journal.
>
>      In his paper, Everhart wrote that the fossil is named after the
> Kanza Indians, "from which the name of the state... is derived and
> where all of the known specimens have been collected."
>
>      The Kanza people originally lived in the Ohio River valley. By
> the early 1800s, they had moved to what is now the Kansas, or Kaw,
> River valley to claim a territory that covered roughly two-fifths of
> modern-day Kansas.
>
>      In 1873, the tribe was forced to move to Indian Territory, in
> present-day Oklahoma.
>
>      Justin McBride, language coordinator for the Kanza Language
> Project with the Kaw Nation of Oklahoma, said the naming is an honor.
>
>      "The Kaw language is no longer spoken fluently," he said. "It is
> easy for mainstream Americans to think that native languages were of
> lesser importance. But they are every bit as rich as other languages
> in the world. I think Mike Everhart's wish of going back to the
> source, going back to 'kansasensis' is a very positive move."
>
>

--
Pamela Munro,
Professor, Linguistics, UCLA
UCLA Box 951543
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1543
http://www.linguistics.ucla.edu/people/munro/munro.htm