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[–] 5 points 38 minutes ago* (1 child)

Hermit Crab - what kind of hermit would be so obsessed with real estate deals?

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  • [–] 3 points 46 minutes ago

    Almost like those names were made for morphological categorization rather than a phylogenetic categorization where we use a completely different naming scheme.

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  • [–] 22 points 2 hours ago (1 child)

    It May Fly, but does it???

    Does it????

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  • [–] 6 points 1 hour ago (3 children)

    Prairie oyster: Not an oyster

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  • [–] 3 points 1 hour ago

    That one's to catch out foreigners. I'm convinced.

    Source: foreigner that will never be caught out but might very well have if he didn't know a South Dakotan.

    Do they actually serve those anywhere?

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  • [–] 3 points 1 hour ago (1 child)

    If you look at the Wikipedia pages for many of these animals, they'll use terms like, "true eel," "true goat," and "true cobra." I guess that's how they generally handle animals that share common names despite not technically being in the correct family or whatever.

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  • [–] 2 points 39 minutes ago

    If you really need to be specific the scientific name or phylogenetic genus is there if you need to avoid the popular morphological name. Trying to fit the two together will always cause problems. For an example, see "fish."

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  • [–] 5 points 2 hours ago

    The Eastern Kingbird may perhaps rule over the eastern part of the west.

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  • [–] 37 points 4 hours ago (3 children)

    Not sure what the original source of this was, other than an old tumblr post

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  • [–] 10 points 3 hours ago (1 child)

    Forgot to include the Blue Tit

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  • [–] 25 points 4 hours ago (1 child)

    Mayfly indeed may fly, give it a pass!

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  • [–] 6 points 3 hours ago (2 children)

    I'm pretty sure when a snake has 'king' in it's name, that's because it eats other snakes.

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    [–] 43 points 5 hours ago* (17 children)

    A mountain goat is a goat, it's just not in genus Capra.

    Fun trip and interesting trip through taxonomy, though, in addition to the gags. A collection of wikipedia articles would be a nice companion.

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  • [–] 21 points 5 hours ago* (14 children)

    it's just not in genus Capra

    That's definitionally what goats are. It's close, being in the same subfamily, but then so are sheep.

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  • [–] 16 points 5 hours ago (13 children)

    I think words like "goat" should have a generic and unstudied applicability: if it looks like a goat, and acts like a goat, it's a goat.

    A mountain goat looks like a goat and acts like a goat, therefore it is a goat.

    A sheep neither looks like a goat, nor acts like a goat, therefore it is not a goat.

    All semantics, of course. If you want to understand goat to mean "member of genus Capra", you certainly can. If you want me to make goat mean that, you're out of luck.

    I'm willing to grant you the distinctions between goats and true goats, in deference to the science of biology. I am not a monster.

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  • [–] 18 points 4 hours ago (3 children)

    I'm willing to grant you the distinctions between goats and true goats, in deference to the science of biology.

    Well that's my point: this post is about how common names contrast with actual, rigid taxonomical definitions. :p

    Like the colloquial word "goat" fits, but your comment read to me, given the context of the post, like you were saying goats can exist outside Capra via a technical definition, which isn't true.

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    [–] 22 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago) (13 children)
    • Horseshoe crab – Not a crab.
    • Hermit crab – Not a crab.
    • King crab – Not a crab (but, in fact, a hermit crab).
    • Porcelain crab – Not a crab.
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  • [–] 16 points 5 hours ago* (1 child)

    Camel spider - Not a camel, Not a spider.

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  • [–] 8 points 4 hours ago*

    Not only that, but horseshoe crabs are closer to camel spiders than they are to crabs – closer, in fact, than horseshoe crabs are to bees, which themselves are (recently) crustaceans.

    Not sure why you got downvoted, btw; great example.

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  • [–] 8 points 4 hours ago (4 children)
  • [–] 7 points 4 hours ago (2 children)
  • [–] 4 points 2 hours ago (1 child)

    Wait... What are they then? Really tall shrubs?

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