At the last meeting of my book club, this question was posed: why does Tyrannosaurus Rex have two names when other dinosaurs get only one? (No, our book had not been about dinosaurs; we read The Tiger's Wife). Turns out the other dinosaurs have two names too, but T.'s Rex is the only one we know about due to a scattershot education overseen by the popular media.
Tyrannosaurus Rex is a binomial name. All species known to science are known by their own binomial name; if you're reading this blog you are most likely a member of the species Homo sapiens. Note that sapiens is not capitalized; neither should rex be, so I'll do my best to present it correctly from here on. The genus Homo also includes several other species, including erectus and neanderthalensis. If one imagines an individual to represent a species, that individual's family would be its genus. So rex is the only dinosaur—correct capitalization does nothing for this analogy—with whom we are on first name terms. The ever popular king of dinosaurs is as familiar as Elvis. It's dinosaurian subjects, on the other hand, are known only by their family names: a Mrs. Triceratops here, a Mr. Iguanodon there, et cetera. Armatus, stenops, and longispinus are all seen by the wider world as three matching stegosaurians.
Fame of the magnitude of rex's can distance a lizard from his roots. At one time, Aublysodon laid claim to him, and other genera have and will likely in future challenge his position in the dinosaurian hierarchy. Rex's stature is such, however, that his is a nomen conservandum; if the Aublysodon story had held up, they would have won the right to be known as Tyrannosaurus, rather than forcing rex to reveal himself as rex Dwight.
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