Naming New Species

[painshill]

I didn't want to denigrate Roger's (Ludwigia's) excellent achievement in getting a new species named after him (see Member's News) so I post this here for your amusement.

The International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (and its sister bodies who look after plants and bacteria) oversees the naming process for previously undescribed species, but the discoverer gets to choose the name. Apart from the consideration that names should be unique, not offensive in any way and the requirements for Latinizing certain words, pretty much anything goes. Here’s a few examples:

Abra cadabra (a clam)

Agra vation (a beetle)

Aha ha (a wasp)

Apopyllus now (a spider)

Ba humbugi (a snail)

Colon rectum (a beetle)

Gelae baen, Gelae belae, Gelae donut, Gelae fish, and Gelae rol (all fungus beetles)

Heerz tooya (a parasitic wasp)

Ittibittium (a mollusc, smaller than the Bittium genus)

La cerveza (a moth)

Lalapa lusa (a wasp)

Leonardo davincii (a moth)

Pieza deresistans, Pieza kake, Pieza pi and Pieza rhea (all bee flies)

Phthiria relativitae (a bee fly)

Villa manillae (a bee fly)

Ytu brutus (a beetle)

Some dubious names persisted from earlier times, like the dinosaur “###### humanum Brookes, 1763” but – despite the “no offence” rule, some dodgy ones have got through in modern times. Evenhuis got approval for the fly “Brachyanax thelestrephones” in 1981 (the Greek translation approximates to "little chief nipple twister") and for some reason Menke’s South American wasp “Pison eu” was also approved in 1988.

Who says scientists don’t have a sense of humour?

Edited February 5, 2013 by painshill

[darthfossil]

The name I liked the best was seen at a fossil show on a fish from Bear Gulch, Montana=Fubarichthyes copiosis. You can translate it to mean "messed up beyond all recognition fish-and we found a lot of them". Needless to say, I bought the fish!

[KansasFossilHunter]

Don't forget: Anisonchus cophater, or "jagged-toothed Cope hater

[RichW9090]

Boneman, actually, the weird names, if they are properly published under the rules of the Code, cannot be done away with - they exist for ever. And there are hundreds, perhaps thousands of what some people would call "weird" names. One vertebrate paleontologist used to use very long compound words in Lakhota Sioux to name Miocene genera and species of mammals he recovered near Wounded Knee: Ekgmowechashala philotau.

References for odd or strange taxonomic names:

http://www.curioustaxonomy.net/

http://cache.ucr.edu...raty/menke.html

http://cache.ucr.edu...aty/yanega.html

Edited February 6, 2013 by RichW9090

[RichW9090]

Anisonchus cophater is now known as Conacodon cophater.

Cope never gave the derivation of the name Anisonchus, but it is compounded out of Greek roots which mean "unequal" and "swelling or bump", probably in reference to the relative size of the principal cusps. As for the derivation of cophater, Cope wrote in a letter to Osborn "Osborn, there is no use looking up the Greek derivation of cophater,...for I have named it in honor of the number of Cope-haters who surround me...." You had it right, but Copes explanation is so elegantly worded I couldn't resist quoting it.

Rich

[jpc]

I think most of the weird names quoted above are actually living species, not fossils. (I didn't look them up, it is just my suspicion). Rather than an embarrassment to our science, I also think it is good fun. My favorite is a Pleistocene snake from Australia, Montypythonoides , which I think has been sunk. In theory the names are withus forever unless another scientist reclassifies said critter and decides it belong in another genus. That's what happened to Montypythonoides and Brontosaurus (now Apatosaurus). My colleague at work thinks species named after people is stupid... it says nothing abbout the animal. I disagree wtih him... I think it is an honor to name a species after someone... right ludwigia? (I have a species of Paleocene mammal named after me, so my opinion may be biased).

Another favorite, the European Hoopoe, a very pretty bird related to kingfishers.... Upapa epops... say it ten thimes fast. I dare you.

[RichW9090]

Even when the species is allocated to a different genus, the original allocation is forever a part of the official record, and has to be cited in any official synonomy. So a name, once coined never can really go away. Even if the Commission grants the supression of a name, say because it has been "forgotten" - a nomen oblitum - it gets entered into an official list of invalid names, and is forever with us.

[RichW9090]

Paleo "funny names" are quite common.

Arfia, a dog like carnivore

Osteoborus orc, a canid

Cuttysarkus, a fossil lizard

Ninjameys, a fossil turtle

Pandemonium, mammal

and so on.

[Ludwigia]

I knew about the possibility as finder of suggesting a name, but I figured I'd let Guenter name it since my Greek or Latin is atrocious. My German conjugation is still a disaster after 25 years. But seriously...if it had been left to me I might have named the crab after my wife.

[Terry Dactyll]

I knew about the possibility as finder of suggesting a name, but I figured I'd let Guenter name it since my Greek or Latin is atrocious. My German conjugation is still a disaster after 25 years. But seriously...if it had been left to me I might have named the crab after my wife.

[Ludwigia]

By the way, getting back to a more humorous note...

The direct translation of the species name of my namesake crab from German into English is, hold onto your hats....

furz - ei =

f*rt (who cut the cheese?) - egg

The German colleagues are certainly in stitches about that, but they're at least polite enough not to mention it in public

[Uncle Siphuncle]

i still laugh at times roger about the raw deal you got with your name in Deutsch...

[jpc]

Along with boneman's comments, I really hate the up and coming idea of selling the naming of new species. There is a fossil species (I can't recall what it is) named after FedEx already. Boooooooo.

[RichW9090]

Call it my pet peeve, but paleontology is a science, and "joke" species names have no place in real science.

Boneman, in response to your comment, let me quote something I wrote a while back:

"Science is often portrayed, especially by scientists, as a dry search

for the truth, based solely on the evidence and consequently devoid of

human interest. Nothing could be further from the truth, as science is a

human endeavor, engaged in by human beings, with all their strengths and

weaknesses. Every generation of scientists, and paleontologists are no

exception, has a mythology of stories about the preceding generation or

two; these become less and less well known (and more fantastic) as time

goes on, as the current generation becomes the older generation to a new

one. Among these stories are the origin of the scientific names appended

to newly described genera and species. Stories change, evolve and lose

detail over time. After another generation, only still, small whispers of

most of the stories remain, and yet, it is those very stories which teach us

that the icons of our science, now on figurative or literal pedestals, were,

after all, just human beings like us. We also lose sight of the fact that what

we do as scientists is set in the framework of the society of which we are

a part, and events in the larger world affect what we do both directly and

indirectly."

I do believe that humor - and, more basically, fun, is an important part of science. Science without humor, and worse, scientists without a sense of humor, would be a sterile, uninterersting thing indeed.

Rich

[RichW9090]

Some of you might find this paper of interest. It is about the discovery, and especially the naming, of a species of fossil pronghorn:\

Papago Springs Cave, Pronghorns and Paleontology: Red Fields and the Burden of Proof. Lucas et al., eds., 2008, Neogene Mammals. New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin 44

[Uncle Siphuncle]

i too prefer a light hearted approach whenever possible. in person i'm only serious when i have to be. my monthly collecting reports attempt to depart from a dry format and blend equal measures of science, fun, raw nature, thrill of discovery, family and friends.

[RichW9090]

We all develop our own approach to things, Boneman, but for me, science has to be fun. There is a famous paleontologist (to remain nameless), who, it always seemed to me, took himself way too seriously. One day, while sitting with him in a bar, he remarked "If science isn't fun, it isn't worth doing!" I have had a higher opinion of him ever since.

[RichW9090]

Bone, you sound like you are well on your way to Curmudgeon-hood. I achieved that status decades ago!

[Uncle Siphuncle]

board presence doesnt always mimic in-person presence.... brent is actually somewhat of a jolly giant!

[painshill]

I didn’t mean to start a war here!

Personally I like a bit of humour injected into science… or anywhere else really.

Here in England we have an urban graffiti artist who uses the tag “Banksy”. He generally works at night with stencils and spray-cans to put irreverent graffiti with dark and political humour tucked away on buildings in London, but you’ll find his work elsewhere and he began travelling abroad as well. It’s either vandalism or art, depending on where your standpoint might be.

In 2005, he smuggled this pseudo-palaeolithic “petroglyph” into the British Museum in London and hung it in gallery 49 while no-one was looking.

It was a while before the museum authorities spotted it, but they then decided to add it to their permanent collection.

Good on ya’ Banksy and well done the BM for entering into the spirit of the joke. Nobody died here.

[RichW9090]

As someone who has had two new species named after him, I surely appreciate the honor, and take it seriously. I also appreciate good fun with names as well. So I guess I come down squarely on both sides of the fence!

Rich

[AgrilusHunter]

I've been thinking about why this subject bothers me so much.

I guess it's the fact that it took me 15 years to find something new. I feel like all that work should be taken seriously.

I know that most, if not all of the members of this forum would give body parts to find something new and get it named.

I guess I feel that these "funny" names downplay the effort that goes into a serious discovery.

Dogs, I sound like a old fart, don't I!

Hi Boneman007,

Many of the biodiversity surveys in the tropics produce new species in every collection attempt. I helps to realize that many of the entomologists that are naming these species don't name one or two or even a handfull of new species, sometimes they can name dozens of new species a year. Many entomologists are a little unhinged to begin with , maintaining a little levity during the process of describing so many new species likely helps keep them sane.

Edited February 6, 2013 by AgrilusHunter

[Ludwigia]

Dogs, I sound like a old fart, don't I!

Now, don't you go taking my name in vain, hear?

[turtleguy]

Hmmm, wonder what I'd name a giant turtle; if I had one. ???

It took me fifty some years of picking up rocks,if my fossil turned out to be new,Kurt's Turtle, sounds like a good name!!!

Edited February 8, 2013 by turtleguy

[AgrilusHunter]

There is only one choice.

Chelys galactica