Dinosaur Named After Mythical Wildman

[Carnoferox]

A newly described troodontid dinosaur from Mongolia has been named Almas ukhaa after the almas, a legendary Bigfoot-type creature from Central Asia. As far as I know this is the first case of a dinosaur being named after a cryptid.

http://www.bioone.org/doi/abs/10.1206/3889.1

[oldrover]

4 minutes ago, Carnoferox said:

A newly described troodontid dinosaur from Mongolia has been named Almas ukhaa after the almas, a legendary Bigfoot-type creature from Central Asia. As far as I know this is the first case of a dinosaur being named after a cryptid.

http://www.bioone.org/doi/abs/10.1206/3889.1

I wonder why? I'm trying to think of a way to make a point about the name of the almas in a different context. 

Speaking of which, it's interesting to note that the Mongolian word almas is strikingly similar to the Caucasian word almasty  for the same sort of thing. I wonder which way the story spread? 

[Carnoferox]

2 minutes ago, oldrover said:

I wonder why? I'm trying to think of a way to make a point about the name of the almas in a different context. 

Speaking of which, it's interesting to note that the Mongolian word almas is strikingly similar to the Caucasian word almasty  for the same sort of thing. I wonder which way the story spread? 

I'm not exactly sure why the almas was chosen to be the namesake, since the dinosaur and the creature don't bear any resemblance. Presumably the authors just had an interest in cryptozoology. Here is all that they give for the etymology of the name:

Quote

Etymology: Almas is in reference to the wild man or snowman of Mongolian mythology (Rincen, 1964). Ukhaa refers to the locality of Ukhaa Tolgod, discovered in 1993, where the specimen was collected.

 

[Carnoferox]

The paper is now open-access:

http://digitallibrary.amnh.org/handle/2246/6818

Edited December 18, 2017 by Carnoferox