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Facts on Scientific Names of Organisms
Ant writes "From my ant message board thread (trying to pick names related to ants for World of Warcraft), Myrmecos mentioned Curiosities of Biological Nomenclature that lists scientific names of organisms are not usually known for their entertainment value. They are indispensable for clarity in communication, but most people skip over them with barely a glance. Mark Isaak, the author, collected those names that are worth a second look. Some names are interesting for what they are named after (for example, Arthurdactylus conandoylensis, Godzillius), some are puns (La cucaracha, Phthiria relativitae), and some show other kinds of wordplay (such as the palindromic Orizabus subaziro). Some have achieved notability through accident of history, and many show the sense of humor of taxonomists."
Firstus Postus
Slashdotius Nerdilius: A fat hairy creature known for rabid outburts of "OPEN SOURCE!!!" and
OMG M$ IS THE SUX ROFL!!1!". Also know for its foul stench, aversion to women, and long greasy beard.
Seastead this.
The dangers of knowledge trigger emotional distress in human beings.
So what's the scientific name for Mecha Godzilla then?? LOL
Free Desk
My favourite one is on the site:
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"Far Side" cartoonist Gary Larson had a bug named after him when one of his fans discovered it. It is a species of louse called . I miss Larson's cartoons, as well as Bill Waterson's since I am being nostalgic.
My other computer is a Jacquard loom.
See: http://www.sel.barc.usda.gov/diptera/syrphid/gates .htm
I'm sorry, the number you have dialed is an imaginary number. Please rotate your phone 90 degrees and dial again.
this
Blearf. Blearf, I say.
Eristalis gatesi
The Bill Gates flowerfly.
OK, I've been here too long, I immediately thought this was from Antdude... Time to go listen to the America - A Citizen's Guide to Democracy Inaction audiobook, available on suprnova suprisingly...
As with the common stinkhorn, a mushroom that is known scientifically as Phallus impudicus .
Oh, no! You have walked into the slavering fangs of a lurking grue!
When i first read the title i read Orgasms.
It's really funny to give each a name...
and would these names be male or female (beeing a male, i suppose my girlfriend would be pissed if i would choose female names, but male names seem a little bit strange to me due to my sexual orientation)
never mind...
Grizzly Bear - Ursus arctos horribilis.
Delightful post! The /. crowd that is interested in taxonomy might also be interested to know that some diseases have rather funny names as well. For instance, there is an annoying itching skin disease called "lichen planus", meaning flat moss. It can also be lichen ruber - red moss. A particular congenital disorder is known as CATCH22. Moebius is also the name of a syndrome. Or, perhaps better known, "syphilis" which means fond of pigs (because people felt that affected patients had behaved like pigs?). For more fun medical terms, see for instance here and, completely off topic but funny nonetheless, here for mistakes made with medical terms.
----- One learns to itch where one can scratch.
There's a Salmonella strain called S. mjordan, apparently the person discovering it was a big Michael Jordan fan.
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reference: http://www.splammo.net/bact102/102xsal.html (sorry no hard link,
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Its really cool.
My personal favourite is commingtonite... A perfect example how even strict naming conventions can lead to funny results...
HI O WISE PRINCE. WHT TOOK U SO DAM LONG?
Cattus Cattus = Manx Shearwater
Leaving that aside, one of the things i've found curious is how none of the three known species of vampire bats are called vampyrus or Vampyrum. Of those that are, none feed on blood. It's quite funny how far superstition can sometimes go :7
Man is a slave because freedom is difficult, whereas slavery is easy.
I read it, I read Facts on Scientific Names of Orgasm.
Serious.
Timang tinggi tinggi
parang sudah asah
alang alang mandi
biar sampai basah
My favorite Masiakasaurus knopfleri. Named after Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits.
Charles Lutwidge Dodgson got his pseudonym from his latin name. Charles Lutwidge = Carolus Lewis = Lewis Carol.
Interesting species.
Is it fascism yet?
I do geological engineering so I am forced to learn all sorts of terrible rock and mineral names. The rock names are much better.. they usually adhere to a couple of "accepted" standards (e.g. the igneous rock triangle). There is no standard for mineral naming, whoever found it can name it, or its just been something carried over through the years. No sense at all. The funny one I know is buried in the amphiboles (garbage rock, lots of substituition going on) theres a particulary amphibole called "Cummingtonite". Who knows what was going on when that one was named.. but I wouldn't want to touch the doorknobs.
Another one named in tribute to comedy:
An extinct python whose remains were found at Riversleigh in Queensland, Australia, was christened "Montypythonoideriversleighensis".
Noims.
This is not the greatest sig in the world. This is just a tribute.
Is it blue and randomly crash into things?
There is a fish - found in New Zealands' Fjordland (Milford Sound, and surrounding Fjords), which has been given the name "Fiordichthys slartibartfasti" - after Slartibartfast - the award-winning Fjord designer in Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker books.
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http://www.fishbase.org/Summary/SpeciesSummary.cf
He rocks, that's some amazing funny stuff he comes up with. It's where I got my meatspace nickname zog and my various nethandles based on that way back when. Went to a big outdoor halloween party as zog the intellectual caveman, was a tossup between zog or thag. My fav was zog chisels out this ferrari made out of stone, then goes "drat, now I have to invent the wheel!". Another one, all these cave dudes are sitting around a fire, they have bloody pieces of meat in their hands, holding them over the fire to cook them. Much grimacing in pain whatnot. zog has his on a stick, they all point and go "Look what zog do!". heh heh heh caveman nerd heh heh heh
Once went to a natural history museum in dayton ohio, they were running a gary larson festival, had quite a few of his original comic drawings interspersed with the displays, it was neat. I think it was part of a tour. Too bad GL won't let his comics be posted online, or rather, last I checked he didn't allow it.
Even as an anonymous coward, I wouldn't insult someone who collects disease names for amusement. The image of an overeducated effeminate yuppie was quickly replaced in my mind as a Hannibal Lector type cooking fava beans. Yes Clarissse... I just found a new friend on Slashdot who shares my interest in viruses, No damnit not Virii, VIRUSES
Although it is not a scientific name, my favorite is Venus's flytrap -- named for its resemblance to a certain part of the female anatomy that most of us here haven't seen yet.
Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
common stripped skunk, mephitis mephitis: "smelliest of the smelly." (Or so I've heard).
Those of you that live in KY or the southern US know what an elephant ant is but for some reason I can't find a single mention of the creatured on the internet. I was thinking they might be listed under the scientiffic name but I don't know it. Anyone know what else elephant ants are called?
Saying Java is nice because it works on all OS's is like saying that anal sex is nice because it works on all genders.
"...and many show the sense of humor of taxonomists." Yes, they sure do. Taxonomists are very well know for their lighting wit and pointed satire.
The Dude abides.
You might find this definition amusing.
I can imagine someone with a name like "Formicator"
LedgerSMB: Open source Accounting/ERP
My favourite silly scientific name is "Puffinus Puffinus". This is not the Puffin, but the unrelated Manx Shearwater. And the more often you type the word "Puffin", the sillier it looks.
Of course, my favorite is Homo sapiens.
"Far Side" cartoonist Gary Larson had a bug named after him when one of his fans discovered it. It is a species of louse called
Here's a link, with pic, of the bug in question: Strigiphilus garylarsoni
And, because the first link is on an AOL user's page: Google cache of Link
Unix ultrix, U. irix, U. linux, U. berkelensis... U. hpux...
Funkotriplogynium iagobadius Iagobadius, of course, being latin for James Brown, in the genus of Funk.
Yes, I realize the article's about scientific names of organisms and Sonic's just a poor little old gene, but who reads the articles anyway? This guy at the U. Washington discovered a quickly changing version of the Hedgehog Gene (Hgg) and thus named it Sonic Hedgehog Gene. The amazing part is that Sega didn't sue. In fact, they were honored. And Sonic the Hedgehog (the Sega one) got to be on the cover of Cell magazine. non wikipedia reference here
Maybe it is time to pull a Star Trek and just give them unique numbers (lonis sequentious integerious). It may eliminate spelling errors. But on the other hand, one can usually manually find the right match if there is a spelling error. If you mess up a digit, then there may be no clues to find the proper one. I suppose a check-sum digit could be added, but that only shows that it is wrong without giving much info about what is wrong.
Table-ized A.I.
Ah, you refer to Editorius cretinus . Often found in a quasi-symbiotic relationship with Retardus prickpullus
Fastius Tasty-us and Apetitius Giganticus, are among the various latin type names that they get, which varies in every cartoon.
Strigiphilus garylarsoni
I think it is talked about in his book "Pre-history of the Far Side".
Peter Forsskål was a Swedish scientist, who was part of the scientific expedition funded by Frederick V of Denmark. The expedition visited Arabia and the Red Sea in the 18th century, Forsskål did a very meticulous and systematic taxonomy of the sea life in that part of the world, including many fish species previously unknown to science.
Forsskål followed a very easy and consistent system, he used the common name in Arabic of the fish as the species name. For example:
Forsskål died in Yemen in 1763, as well as others who accompanied the expedition, Carsten Niebuhr being the only survivor .
His work was published posthoumously by Neibuhr in 1775, a full 12 years after Forskaal's death.
Many of the fish in the Red Sea today still have Forsskål on their taxonomy name. Reminds me of that guy every time I look them up in a book, or on Fishbase.
2bits.com, Inc: Drupal, WordPress, and LAMP performance tuning.
Galaxias gollumoides, a type of fresh-water fish from New Zealand. See here
Wrong website for that I guess.
:
Szent-Györgyi documents the episode in the essay "Lost in the Twentieth Century," which is in Volume 32 of the Annual Review of Biochemistry, and dates from 1963.http://cache.ucr.edu/~heraty/yanega.html
for a big list
only infrmatn esentil to understandn mst b tranmitd
That silly page lists penguinone... 3,4,4,5-tetramethylcyclohexa-2,5-dienone, with an appropriate molecular structure to suit...
How come I've never seen that mentioned here before?
Greek for "little chief nipple twister"
If i could get an image of one it would be my new wallpaper (google is not my friend)...
My favorite protein is the "menage a trois" . But then again i'm a reproductive biologist...