This is the real name, by the way. There was beer involved, which is how all scientific nomenclature stories should start:
“It was just a joke, but then everyone stopped and looked at each other and said, ‘Wait–that actually sounds cool’…. I tried to come up with serious names after that, but Mojoceratops just sort of stuck.”
The paleontologist-poet who came up with MOJOCERATOPS! – I’ve decided that it must be invariably capitalized and given an exclamation point – is one Nicholas Longrich, who discovered the species by looking through existing dinosaur fossil collections and noticing that some of them had distinctive features that suggested a new type. As I understand it, this happens more often than you’d think. It’s just rare that somebody comes up with a name like MOJOCERATOPS! to commemorate the occasion.
Rocking cartoon of MOJOCERATOPS! at the first link: my only quibble is that it lacks a pair of mirrorshades to reinforce the entire ‘cool’ thing. Unless it’s the artist’s feeling that MOJOCERATOPS! won’t roll that way? I could accept that.
Via my wife.
Moe Lane
PS: MOJOCERATOPS! I’m pronouncing that like the guys who do the funny car raceway park radio commercials would, by the way.