Funny, long, or just plain weird animal names

Nature Talk
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Its alternative name, Squat Anemone Shrimp (as used on iNat), is not so sexy.

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There’s Hooker’s Pussytoes. Though that does seem a little bit like maybe it doesn’t really need to be the default common name because most non-inat sources including the wikipedia page it links to appear to use Racemose Pussytoes


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It isn’t legal to shoot cowbirds anywhere in the US.

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Oh Boy! Jellyfish

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Oh boy!!! That’s a crazy name!!

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A funny frog name (I think only people who understand Spanish will get it)

Allobates niputidea https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/64862-Allobates-niputidea

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So that just blew my mind. Maybe when the first specimens were brought, the frog expert at the moment said ‘‘no tengo ‘niputidea’ de quĂ© tipo de rana sea esta, nunca la habĂ­a visto antes’’


Oops


Note: I don’t like cuss words but this was inevitable


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Yeah, it must have been someting like that :joy:

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My understanding is that it translates roughly into “no freaking idea” in reference to the frog which probably looks like a lot of other very similar frogs from South America ? That would be a good specific name for many organisms.

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Eternal Light

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I don’t know if this counts but when the name gets cut off while I’m scrolling


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I had already realized of that one before actually.

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I like weird contradictory size names like the Small Giant Clam, whose scientific name is Tridacna maxima to boot

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Maybe because it’s a species of giant clam but small compared to others.

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For me, part of what makes it a bit contradictory is in a genus of giant clams, the specific epithet maxima goes to the “Small” Giant Clam. There are some other similarly weird clashes between size indicated by English and scientific names like Great Frigatebird, Fregata minor

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Wouldn’t that make it the Average-sized Clam?

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This is exactly the case. Tridacna gigas is the “true” giant clam according to some, and it’s 3 times larger than T. maxima. Whether or not “giant clam” is applied just to T. gigas or the whole genus is up for debate.

We’ll for a giant clam it’s rather small, but for a typical clam it is still giant.

Not to get too technical. :)

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Not an animal, but I do wonder what the people who named the islands of Guadeloupe were thinking.
Basse-Terre means Lowland, and it is the higher of the two.
Grande-Terre means Mainland, and it is the smaller of the two.

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Oh boy, the ‘‘Fregata minor’’ thing is something that I remember asking since my childhood because I read about that bird in a book. Why is it called Great Frigatebird?

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Actually gigas means giant.