Old School Freak

Nytimes.com managed to outdo Bluefish Canoe by reporting on a recently discovered Jurassic era freak animal called Castorocauda lutrasimilis. Castorocauda lutrasimilis is Latin for "beaver tail and similar to the otter". The nytimes article provides no explanation of how beaver tail and similar to the otter is expressed in only two words in Latin. Nor is there any account of why the scientists didn't name the newly found species the Latin equivalent of similar to the platypus. I have no explanation either, but the nytimes does concede Castorocauda lutrasimilis is pretty much like a platypus (but not a relation according to the article).

Anyway, if you didn't go to the link this is what it looks like: