Fossil Hunter "slang"

[Mr_billy_bob]

So I'm kind of new to paleontology, since I was 6 I liked dinosaurs and paleontology but now I'm want to know how you guys talk about dinosaurs, I've heard people say stuff like "Phacopida trilobite"

So do you guys read books about how to identify and classify prehistoric species? Thanks!

[Fossildude19]

Speaking from personal experience - Yes.

I am not a professional by any stretch. But after 20 years of looking for things, and learning about things, you start to get the feel of everything. I know I do not pronounce the latin names correctly, but I try.

There is so much to learn, from the fossils you can find, to the geology behind fossilization... it is an ongoing labour of love. Always learning something new.

I am interested in different types of fossils, so I study whatever I am currently interested in. Usually that consists of whatever I have recently collected, or plan to collect in the near future.

I started off by reading everything I could about the fossils of my area. Then, I went to museums, and studied what the fossils look like in my area, and what can be found in my area.

I went back, and read scientific papers, books, internet articles, newspaper articles, - anything pertaining to what I was interested in.

Then I began to search for fossils on my own. I was lucky enough to have a few areas available to me to do so.

Get some fossil books, and read what you can online... it is wonderful how much information you can get when you know how to get it.

Regards,

So the long answer

[FossilDAWG]

There is a difference between "jargon" and "slang". Paleontology, like any science, has a lot of names for things. It is necessary to read a lot, and to talk to knowledgeable people (professional or amateur) to learn to associate the right name with the right fossil, but once you do so you gain access to all the information that has accumulated over centuries of research. For example, suppose you collect some bug like thing. There is a hierarchy of names that you might apply:

1. "bug-looking thingy". This may convey to someone the vague notion that maybe you have found a fossil of some sort of arthropod, but it is so vague no-one would know if you are talking about an insect, crab, or whatever. Not only would they not have much of an idea what you had found, they would not be able to form any idea of the age of the fossil, or even if it came from a marine or terrestrial rock.

2. "arthropod". At least, now someone would have a general picture of some sort of an animal with an exoskeleton. It could still be marine or terrestrial, though, and any age from Cambrian to modern.

3. "trilobite". Now we have a much better idea. We can picture an animal with a head, thorax made of many segments, and pygidium, and a central axis and pleural lobes. We also know that the rocks it came from are Paleozoic and were deposited in a marine environment.

4. "phacopid trilobite". Now we have information about the structure of the eyes, a general idea about the features of the head and facial sutures, and we know that it came from Ordovician, Silurian, or Devonian rocks.

5. "Eldredgeops". Now any reasonably well informed collector has a fairly precise idea of what your specimen does and does not look like. That idea can be quite detailed if the person you are talking to knows how to distinguish Eldredgeops from closely related genera such as Phacops, Reedops, etc. They also will know that you were collecting in Devonian rocks.

6. "Eldredgeops rana". Once you get to the level of species, the name alone will convey a wealth of information. An informed collector will now know (or can easily find out) quite precisely what your specimen looks like, the precise stage of the Devonian the rock was deposited in, and that you were almost certainly collecting in some member of the Hamilton group, which is exposed in Ontario, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, or Virginia. A researcher who collected that species anywhere else in the world could be confident in concluding that the rock formation they were collecting from is the same age as the Hamilton Group, so they could correlate those rocks, even across wide distances.

The point of names, as used in taxonomy, is that those names convey precise information about the nature,features, and relationships of the organism the name is applied to. That is why there are lots of rules about naming things, such as the rule that a given species name can only be applied to a single species, you can't have multiple things all named "Eldredgeops rana". (The exception is that you can use the same name for species that belong to different kingdoms; for example you could have a plant and an animal with the same name, as it assumed that they are so easily distinguished that no confusion would arise, though the practice is discouraged.)

In science, as in many fields, "jargon" (having precise names for very specific things) is necessary for clear, highly precise and finely nuanced communication. If you want to participate in that science, you have to learn the language, there really is no way around it.

"Slang" is another thing altogether: words used by a circle of collectors to designate some local species, without any intent to be precise or to indicate anything about relationships to other organisms or specific geological horizons, or just truncated versions of proper names used as short-cuts at the cost of precision. You'll see a lot of that here on the Forum, as well as efforts to use proper names. A while ago some people were talking about having collected a "tummy tooth worm". If you were not in the position of being in the circle of Mazon Creek collectors, "tummy tooth worm" conveys no information, not even a vague mental picture, nor any idea of age or geological horizon, and also nothing that could even be looked up. If you haven't been given a magic decoder ring you're out of luck. That is "slang". Also as far as the abbreviated version of real names goes, look for things like "avit crab" (also referred to as "muffin crabs") for nodules containing Avitelmessus grapsoideus crabs. If you google "avit" you'll get nothing pointing you to Avitelmessus grapsoideus; if you google "muffin crab" you'll get pages of images of crab cakes, so if you don't already know what the name refers to there is no way to figure it out, aside from asking someone who does have a decoder ring. Also beware of weird and misleading spellings: "cephalopods" can be referred to as "cephs", "cefs", "kephs", and anything in between. Often I find that in order to "translate" slang into a reasonably accurate idea of what people are talking about I need to run through a mental list of combinations and permutations, made much easier if there is a photo attached to the post of course.

You can probably tell that I am not a fan of slang.

Don

Edited June 2, 2015 by FossilDAWG

[jpc]

a lot of this slang that Don speaks of is very site specific or regional. Out here we use Trike to mean Triceratops. It took me a while to fall into this, but I did reluctantly. I am also no big fan of this slang.

[Mr_billy_bob]

Thanks guys!

[Auspex]

You can get in as deep as suits your needs; it all depends on how much detail you want to convey, and understand.

I think many of us start by trying to quench our curiosity, and soon find ourselves trying to sip from a fire hose.

There is just so much to know, and it is all terribly interesting!

[erose]

My favorite is "bugs" for trilobites. That one is fairly well used across the USA from what I can tell.

[FossilDAWG]

As an entomologist (well so I'm told that's what I am) I'm often amused that the "official" use of the term "bug" is restricted to just insects in the order Hemiptera. Of course, people use "bug" for any insect, for millipedes and centipedes, for spiders, basically any "creepy-crawly critter". So in that sense trilobites are just part of the (very heterogeneous) gang.

Don

[Coco]

Salut,

Mon préféré est "bugs" pour trilobites.

... je suis souvent amusé que l'usage "officiel" du terme "bug" est limitée aux insectes simplement dans l'ordre Hemiptera. Bien sûr, les gens utilisent "bug" pour tous les insectes, pour les mille-pattes et des mille-pattes, araignées pour, en fait tout "créature de fourmillement". Donc dans ce sens trilobites sont qu'une partie de la (très hétérogène) gang.

Don

As English isn't my "mother language" (1st language), I always believed that "bug" was the equivalent of the French word "chose" which means "a thing" without other precision. Which just goes to show that the slang, for the Americain but even more for the foreigners, doesn't facilitate the communication.

Me either I don't like too much the slang when we speak about fossils...

Coco

[Manticocerasman]

Salut,

As English isn't my "mother language" (1st language), I always believed that "bug" was the equivalent of the French word "chose" which means "a thing" without other precision. Which just goes to show that the slang, for the Americain but even more for the foreigners, doesn't facilitate the communication.

Me either I don't like too much the slang when we speak about fossils...

Coco

Coco,

The traduction from “Bug” to French would be more accurate as: “une bestiole”

I think this could also be applied when finding a trilobite : “j'ai trouvé une bestiole” but is again wildly inaccurate in scientific terms

Kevin

[Coco]

Ah ! thanks Kevin !

Coco

[ZiggieCie]

See, Mr Billy Bob, we have the whole world at our finger tips, so at least basics can point people in the right direction.

In my area, ohio, Indiana, mostly marine fossils, so here slang would be; trilobite or bug if with like fossil hunters. Brach for brachiopods, horn coral for Rugose corals, bryo for bryozoa. It all depends on your audience and intent.

For here if you are not sure of what you have, we have many knowledgeable people that are glad to help.

A clear photo with a size reference, A location for where you found it are bare minimums for help in getting an ID.

This is a great place for a new person to learn and great teachers.

[verydeadthings]

Many micropaleontologists use the word "bug" to refer to single-celled plankton like foraminifera and coccolithophores

[ZiggieCie]

That's why slang is very localized and totally dependent on the subject of the moment, that is why we slowly learn the correct names as we go along and keep notes, We cant remember every name we have in our collections.

[Ludwigia]

I remember running into a couple of local collectors while I was collecting the Whitby area coast for the first time. I had no idea what they were talking about at first until they'd translated their slang into the more understandable geological jargon. It's almost like some collectors in England talk in code.

[Cam28]

Slang can be fun. Not all that much here or pretty straightforward, meg for megalodon, Hemi/snaggle for Hemipristis, tiger, lemon etc. (sharks), glypt, squal (shortened genera). Although I have heard from museum staff that phosphate miners refer to them as dinosaurs.

But overall seems hunters up north seem to have more fun with their bugs, mossy's, fin backs & whatnot.

[siteseer]

Coco,

Your interpretation of "bug" is not too far from its usage in some circles. In the early 20th century a "bug" could be a fossil, even a Tyrannosaurus skeleton. I believe the fossil locality, Bug Creek, in Montana is not a reference to insects but to fossils. My brother asks me if I found any "bugs" whenever I've come back from a fossil collecting trip.

Just this past weekend, I was in Florida and two friends were talking about the effort involved in exterminating bugs and keeping them out of their houses. They seemed to recognize I was about to ask what kind of bugs and one of them said, "In Florida when two people are talking about problems with bugs, they mean cockroaches."

Jess

Salut,

As English isn't my "mother language" (1st language), I always believed that "bug" was the equivalent of the French word "chose" which means "a thing" without other precision. Which just goes to show that the slang, for the Americain but even more for the foreigners, doesn't facilitate the communication.

Me either I don't like too much the slang when we speak about fossils...

Coco