New dinosaur: Is that an oxymoron?

Mercury (by Hendrick Goltzius) 

Being that dinosaurs have been extinct for about a gazillion years, seeing the phrase “new dinosaur” within many a recent headline has been somewhat disconcerting.

This “new dinosaur,” also known as “Mercuriceratops,” has “winglike horns on its skull,” reminiscent of the Roman god Mercury’s winged helmet. But that’s where the resemblance ends…

Whereas Mercury was able to flit about, his two-ton namesake was decidedly earthbound.  As it lumbered around foraging for plants approximately 77 million years ago, this reptilian vegetarian was also looking for something else.

Dylan Stableford of Yahoo! News reports that old Mercuriceratops was scrounging around for a mate, and relying upon its elaborate headgear to do the trick.  After all, what lonely dinosaur in its right mind could resist the “bizarre, butterflylike protrusions” on either side of Mercuriceratops' thick skull?

Mercury, for all his Olympian shenanigans, couldn’t have done much better.  In fact, he needed a net to catch the love of his life, the floral nymph Chloris.  How pathetic is that, even by human standards?

Resources

http://news.yahoo.com/mercuriceratops-new-dinosaur-discovered-145307715.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury_%28mythology%29

Copyright June 20, 2014 by Linda Van Slyke   All Rights Reserved