Daily Dino Fact: Big name, little dino
Sunday, January 24th, 2010
Mei may look small to you, but it isn't to that rodent
Q: What dinosaur has the longest name? What Dinosaur has the shortest name? -Liefdrag
A: Thanks for the question Liefdrag. I was interested in this one myself and I’m actually a little surprised by what I found. I decided to keep the shortest and longest to just the genus name (genus and species would get a little hectic). What is surprising about what I found is that both the longest and shortest names belong to really small dinosaurs!
The dinosaur picture about is Mei, sometimes known as Mei Long. Mei Long means “soundly sleeping dragon” in Chinese. These dinosaurs have been seen in the television show “Prehistoric Park” attacking the documentary group! While they were small, they were probably very fast little scavengers and hunters who could take down small prey easily like the raptors do.
"I don't know how to say your name but you sure are cute"
The picture above shows an artist’s rendition of Micropachycephalosaurus, the longest genus name of any dinosaur. Remember when we talked about the Pachycephalosaurs? These guys were just like them except teeny tiny. Micropachycephalosaurus was about 1.2ft (0.4m) tall and about 1.6ft (0.6m) long. Can you imagine the adorable little head butts these guys would produce if they squabbled? Funny that the dinosaur with the longest name is also one of the smallest ever!
-Rex