Palaeontology in French

The tenth entry is en connexion anatomique, and it is the kind of phrase that tempts a word-for-word rendering into a sentence no palaeontologist writes. French names the state of a find with a prepositional phrase: a skeleton lies en connexion anatomique while the bones are still joined in the order the animal wore them, and the opposite state gets an adjective of its own, désarticulé. English puts both on one root and prefers a participle. A skeleton is « articulated » when it is complete and in order and « disarticulated » when it has fallen apart, and a report will say a specimen was found « in articulation » or « fully articulated ». What it will not say is « in anatomical connection », which is grammatical, transparent and immediately foreign, because « connection » here is about links between things rather than joints between bones. Two habits follow from that. Translate the French phrase whole, since the parts carry nothing alone. And expect the information to change shape on the way across: what French spreads over three words, English folds into one.