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I noticed a possible editorial error in Nature magazine concerning this. These two headlines here and here use en dashes and hyphens for the adjectives "human–animal" and "human-animal" respectably.

In both articles, the en dash version is used but in the headlines, there is a difference. Is this some kind of error? I'm guessing the en dash version is the correct one but could someone explain to me why that is?

Ge To
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    This is a novel compound premodifier and takes the usual hyphen. In some 'triple-barrelled' premodifiers, some style guides recommend hyphen and dash be used in tandem, but that is not the case here. – Edwin Ashworth Sep 12 '21 at 13:34
  • It seems to me that the usage of the hyphenated version is more common. Check this out. But it seems like both are used in tandem. – Ge To Sep 12 '21 at 14:07
  • Since hyphenated words use hyphens, the shortest dash, could the headlines have their own font quirk? – Yosef Baskin Sep 12 '21 at 21:00
  • @YosefBaskin In the articles, the en dash is used throughout. Only in that one headline is the hyphen used. That's why I thought it an error, although Ngram results show that the hyphen version is much more common. – Ge To Sep 13 '21 at 16:07

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