Sixth Grade
Worksheets
How Are Dinosaurs Named?
The word dinosaur was coined by Sir Richard Owen in 1842. It comes from the Greek words deinos, which means "fearfully great" or "terrible," and sauros which means "lizard." Dinosaur literally means terrible lizard. There are many different ways a dinosaur is given its name.
Some are given a name that describes an unusual feature about its head, body, or feet. Others are named for the location where they were found. Still others are named for their behavior. Some are named in honor of a person. Biologists name modern animals in similar ways. All the names must be approved by an organization called the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature.
One dinosaur that was named for its unusual head features was the Triceratops. Its name means "three-horned face" because its face had three horns. A dinosaur that was named for its claws was the Deinonychus. Its name in Greek means "terrible claw." It had three toes on each foot that ended in large, sharp curved claws. The Albertosaurus was a dinosaur found in Alberta, Canada.
