Fwd: Re: Hebejeebie

[Doug Yanega]

Tom Lammers wrote:

>Somebody REALLY needs to create an index of these ...  When teaching
>nomenclature, it's nice to have some "fun" examples, to show students that
>scientists aren't all mirthless research drones.

If you combined my list (which I hope to get back online), Menke's
list, and Mark Isaak's list, you would have a pretty large index. One
thing that *is* immediately obvious when examining the complete list
is that certain individual scientists were MUCH more mirthful than
others. Certain taxonomic areas seem to be rich in oddball names, as
well - insects, at least, can trace this to the simple fact that many
more insects are being named. Relative to the number of taxa, then,
the palaeontologists seem to be most prone. Nonetheless, consider the
following:

Ken Kinman wrote:

>     One of my favorite funny generic names is Necrosuchus ("dead
>crocodile").  The story goes that Simpson was digging up this fossil
>crocodile, and one of the local residents asked if it was "dead".  I bet he
>got a lot of good laughs telling that story.  :-)

This is reminiscent of one fairly recent example of *poor* humor on
the part of the palaeontologists; when an entomologist, Mike Ivie,
discovered that the dinosaur genus Syntarsus was a junior synonym (by
100 years) of a well-known beetle genus, and was unable to contact
the original author (actually, he was informed *incorrectly* that
said author was dead), the replacement name given was
"Megapnosaurus". The name ("big dead lizard") has evidently offended
a great many palaeontologists, despite the fact that - as a group -
palaeontologists are among the worst offenders, as far as bequeathing
names for less-than-objective reasons. One can only suspect that
these same offended individuals don't care much for many of their
colleagues' efforts, Cuttysarkus included. ;-)

Peace,
--

Doug Yanega        Dept. of Entomology         Entomology Research Museum
Univ. of California - Riverside, Riverside, CA 92521
phone: (909) 787-4315 (standard disclaimer: opinions are mine, not UCR's)
   "There are some enterprises in which a careful disorderliness
         is the true method" - Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Chap. 82