#hotcrossbunodon

[hasellia]

Kollikodon Presents: Hot Cross Bunodon WIP GAHHHH!! So close to Easter! I juuuuust missed it! Maybe I can make it presentable tomorrow? maybe...

[sasquapossum]

WTF is a kollikodon

In the beginning was the platypus. For no particularly good reason, at some point it displaced the moose as our household mascot. Being me, this meant that I learned a lot about platypuses. Yes, platypuses. “Platypi” is fun to say but it’s a Latin plural of a Greek root so it’s definitely incorrect. I’ve heard “platypodes” is the etymologically-correct plural, but I’ve also known some actual platypus scientists and they say “platypus” or “platypuses” so I’ll follow their lead. But see, now I’m already going. I could go on all day. I’m pretty good at trivia generally (maybe you could tell) but if there was ever a platypus edition of Jeopardy I would stomp all over everyone. Go on, ask me about C-type natriuretic peptide. I dare you.

So, here are two key things I learned. One is that “platypus” is almost impossible to get as a name or handle on any website. It goes early. The other thing is that platypuses have relatives. The closest contemporary relative is the echidna, which is fascinating in its own way, but I’m mostly talking about ancient relatives. That’s why my best-known name online at this point is Obdurodon. Ancient monotremes are mostly known only from their teeth, often in opalized forms. "Obdurodon" breaks down into Greek "obduro-" meaning hard or stubborn (like obdurate or obstinate) and "don" meaning tooth. So I'm a stubborn tooth. It's a bit weird, I know, but it suits my personality and it's more likely to be available. Not always, though.

For some reason, here and on Reddit, "obdurodon" wasn't available. It's entirely likely that I had created accounts and forgotten about them, and they're linked to email addresses that I no longer have. Or maybe there's some other lunatic out there. Either way, I had to look for an even more obscure platypus relative. This one is also named after a tooth, which somebody thought looked like a hot cross bun - a common Easter treat in some countries including the one where I grew up. So the scientists actually proposed "hotcrossbunodon" as the name. I kid you not. Needless to say, it got rejected by the people who get to reject such things (whoever the hell they are). So the scientists used that Greek connection again and came up with "kollikodon" because "kollix" is an ancient (not modern) Greek word for a bread roll. Sneaky, huh?

So that's why I'm kollikodon here. Now that I think about it, maybe I should have gone with hotcrossbunodon instead. What do you think?

[hasellia]

Yo so apparently there is a rad as hell opalised Cretaceous mammal jaw.

Exquisite. Beautiful. Who was the owner of these fine molars?

A stem-monotreme by the name of Kollikodon. This name was chosen due to a striking observation by the holotype's descriptors. When you look at the molars from above they bare an uncanny resemblance to...

Hot Cross Buns.

Kollikodon means "bread roll tooth".

Outstanding.