Most Fun Scientific Names

What's fun in it?
P. S. It must have a typo, since there is no species with such name.

 

Some of these are quite fascinating!

And I just used to giggle because helarctos malayanus ends in anus.

 

And almost any adjetive put in neutral gender ends in -anus, so you will giggle at hundreds of thousands of different scientific names

 

But not ursus arctos, ursus maritimus, ailuropoda melanoleuca, tremarctos ornatus or melursus ursinus, which are the ones I am the most familiar with.

 

arctos is not an adjetive and the remaining ones are all masculine or femenine gender, not neutral
There are also a lot of neutral adjetives that doens't end in -anus, but it's fairly usual overall for those referring to places (such as malayanus)

 

I'd say the most fun one for me is Megalops atlanticus, especially when used in a sentence.

"My Megalops atlanticus could eat your Megalops atlanticus"

 

I have to be honest, I don’t really tend to study these names in any great level of detail, therefore I have noticed and memorised very few.

 

My giant error. I must apologize I don't know what kind of thing was blowing my mind for such a tremendous fail. Of course that malayanus (and thibetanus, that also applies to a bear species) are masculine gender. In neutral gender they would end in -anum.

 

I don’t know the Latin language at all - so either way, you’re already far better advised than I will ever be.

 

Loxodonta africana has always been one of my favorites. Lilting and melodic!

 

Found the reason to name the following species quite funny :

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/sci...e-insect-with-golden-behind-after-singer.html

 

The American robin: Turdus migratorius. I also like the Steller's sea lion: Eumetopias jubatus. Only because the males look and sound like Jabba the Hutt when they're lying on rocks.

 

Cryptoprocta ferox always gets me.

 

Not to be confused with Fossa fossana

 

Oh yes this one is funny, the "fierce hidden anus"

 

a lucky co-incidence, jubata/um/us is Latin for maned.

 

I had wondered what that meant since I later on saw that in the cheetah's Latin name.

 

There is a fish called Boops boops.

*boops*

 

Coincidence? Maybe the only fun fact is that both Steller's sea lion and cheetah doesn't have a mane despite their names meaning maned...? (and same for the Orinoco goose, or the lizard Bronchocela jubata...). Other animals are more properly called maned, such as kagu and maned wood duck. By memory I don't remember any other species called so, but must be a lot more.

Sheather, if my deduction is correct, boops means "ox-eyed". Bogue is not the only animal whose specific epithet is "boops", for example I remember the wasp Astata boops. Ah, this fish is one of the animal species that I once saw (at Loro Park, Tenerife) but that I don't have photos of... I hope to find again somewhere.