dino-

Terrible, frightful; dinosaur.

[Greek deinos, terrible.]

Easily the most common example is dinosaur (Greek sauros, lizard), a fossil reptile of the Mesozoic era; another fossil type is dinotherium (Greek thēr, beast), a mammal like an elephant from the later Tertiary Period. A few words use dino- in the sense of dinosaur, such as dinoturbation, the effect on the formation of sedimentary rocks of dinosaurs churning up the ground, and dinomania, an excessive interest in dinosaurs. However, dinoflagellate, a single-celled organism with two flagella, derives from Greek dinos, whirling.

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