Talk:Moschops

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[edit] the TV series

SOMEONE must be able to write about the children's TV series with his friend Flower? My memory is far too hazy.

Someone should definitely write about that, as it seems to be an important, and widely-known pop culture referencer. Alas, being an American, I never saw that show, so I am not that someone.

[edit] Meaning of the name

There seems to be some debate about what the name means, with edits toggling it back and forth between "calf's eye" and "silly face." I have it on the authority of Apokryltaros (AKA "Mr. Fink") that "silly face" is the meaning given in David Norman's Prehistoric Life: The Rise of the Vertebrates. This notwithstanding, and despite the indisputable fact that the moschops 'did have a very silly face indeed, I don't see how the Greek roots can be used to mean that. It is true that ὤψ can mean "face" as well as "eye", but μόσχος, in classical Greek, means "calf" (the only other meaning I can find is "twig", and much later "musk", but not "silly"). Now, it is not always immediately obvious, even if you know Latin and Greek, what exactly biologists intend a binomial name to mean, so I can't speak with absolute authority here. But doesn't "silly face" seem like an implausible name for a fossil that's been known so long? Given that it is so unusual, and that it doesn't seem to match the Greek, I don't think we should give that as the gloss on this page, without more research to back it up (and, imho, ideally a discussion of the Greek as well). --Iustinus 18:36, 13 November 2006 (UTC)