Help, My Child is Into Dinosaurs! (Part 1)

Dinosaurs are a major, extinct group of land-living reptiles that flourished on Earth from the mid Triassic until their demise at the end of the Cretaceous some sixty-five million years ago. To a palaeontologist, even one who specialises in vertebrate fossils (the fossilised remains of animals with backbones), Dinosauria, the correct term for this particular Order of reptiles, are perhaps only a passing interest. There are many more fossils of prehistoric creatures to study. However, for children, some of whom are as young as three years of age, dinosaurs can be a source of endless fascination. In our experience, children from three years of age and upwards, both boys and girls can obsess on dinosaurs, this can cause some problems for the grown ups who are responsible for them.

Dinosaur Names - How to Pronounce Them

Firstly, there are all those long and complicated names to get to grips with. As soon as children are able to read, some of them will migrate towards the myriad of dinosaur books that are out there. They seem to pick up the names very easily and for the majority of parents keeping up with them can be a real problem. Pronunciation can be difficult, the names of these animals are usually derived from the Greek or Latin, although some of the more recent discoveries have not followed the scientific doctrine which is to formally name creatures using these ancient languages. For example, a number of recent Chinese dinosaurs have been named using the local Chinese dialect. When these are interpreted into other tongues the problems of pronunciation can be exacerbated. As a parent or guardian of such a dino-enthusiast, you may be asked to help pronounce the names of the dinosaurs. In essence, most children's dinosaur books do not provide the full scientific name for you to contend with, usually you just have the genus (the first part of a scientific description) to cope with. For example, Triceratops (try-sera-tops), this is actually the name of the genera. A genus (plural genera) refers to a collection of closely related species, then you have a second part of the formal scientific name, this is the specific or trivial name and refers to the actual species. At present, most scientists agree that there are two species of Triceratops in the Triceratops genus, one of these, the largest of the species and the one usually featured in children's picture books is Triceratops horridus. Note how when the full scientific name of an organism is written it is put in italics when typed. When writing freehand, the full name is usually underlined. Such academic niceties are all very well, but this does not help you with the pronunciation. However, assistance is at hand. Firstly, most children's books do not go into this detail, they merely use the generic name (the genus), so you can safely consider that in fact you have only got 50% of the name to pronounce anyway, in essence you only have half the pronunciation job to contend with.

There are one or two exceptions to this rule, and you can come across the formal scientific name of some dinosaurs, even in the most basic of dinosaur books. Take the most famous dinosaur of all - Tyrannosaurus rex. This fearsome, carnivore from the Late Cretaceous is perhaps the best known of all extinct animals. It is a real superstar of the fossil record. T. rex is often featured in television programmes and films so this particular extinct meat-eater has a very high profile and young children, especially the boys seem to be really keen on the carnivorous dinosaurs, often the bigger and nastier the better. In books, this particular dinosaur is usually written as its full scientific name. However, Tyrannosaurus represents the name of the genus to which this particular dinosaur belongs, a group of large, fearsome late Cretaceous predators that were closely related to each other. The specific or trivial name, the second part of the scientific name, identifies the individual species. So in this case Tyrannosaurus rex (tie-ran-oh-sore-us rex), is the complete scientific name for a particular species.

Big Dinosaurs with Long Names

When faced with an eager young child keen to show you some information on dinosaurs or to tell you about their latest dinosaur model there is no need to panic. Some good news for the parents, guardians and grandparents out there - usually the child will offer up the name of the dinosaur themselves and if you listen carefully you can simply repeat the name the child comes up with and this will usually extricate you from what could be a tricky situation.

However, sometimes you will be asked about a particular animal or model by your child and unfortunately, this could mean that you may be forced to try a pronunciation. Don't give up, there is usually an explanation of the name and a phonetic pronunciation guide to be found on the page of the picture book. If a book is not to hand, get your child to fetch their dinosaur books and you can play a game of looking for the name of the particular animal together. This little exercise will teach the child that books can be a source of reference information, they will also get used to looking up information themselves and such a prompt from a parent or guardian to "go fetch their dinosaur books" will encourage them with their reading and word association.

Look for an Index or Glossary of Names

Once you have a book, try looking at the back, there is usually a glossary of helpful terms including a guide as to how to pronounce some of the more common dinosaur names. In many children's dinosaur books there are pronunciation guides published. Authors recognise that the names of the creatures from the Age of Reptiles are tricky to pronounce. In order to help young readers, (and their parents) you will often find an alphabetical list of dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals featured in the book with a phonetic pronunciation guide.

The important thing to do, is to have a go at finding the correct name, this will encourage your child to take an interest in books and to appreciate them. Helping in this way, encouraging them to learn more about dinosaurs and other extinct creatures will prove invaluable at school and motivate them to learn more about these creatures. Such motivation can carry on into further school lessons and help young people to learn more about Earth sciences. You never know, you might even end up with a palaeontologist in the family.