Lambeosaurid

Part of speech: noun, adjective

Definitions

1. Any member of a family of herbivorous hadrosaurid dinosaurs from the Late Cretaceous, distinguished by a hollow crest on the skull
2. A crested duck-billed dinosaur belonging to the group of plant-eating reptiles that lived in North America and Asia during the Cretaceous period
3. Describing a plant-eating dinosaur of the hadrosaur family known for its distinctive hollow head crest and duck-like bill

Etymology: Lambeosaurid is a scientific coinage built from a person's name, and the chain of naming runs from a Canadian palaeontologist up to a whole family of dinosaurs. The root is Lambeosaurus, the type genus, which was named in honour of Lawrence Lambe, a Canadian palaeontologist who collected and described fossils of these hadrosaurs from the Late Cretaceous rocks of Alberta. The genus name, which combines Lambe with the Greek "sauros" for lizard, was then extended to the family Lambeosauridae, and the family name gave rise to the adjective and noun "lambeosaurid" used for any member of that group. Dinosaur family names are typically formed by adding the suffix "-idae" to the stem of a type genus, and the same pattern produced "lambeosaurid" as a derived noun and adjective. The result is a word that carries a surname inside it: anyone who says "lambeosaurid" is, in effect, saying Lambe's name followed by a Greek lizard.