[Taxacom] Catastrophic loss

[Tony Rees]

Well I dunno... here in Australia we do indeed have lots of common names
based on misleading external resemblances... we have Australian salmon that
are not salmon, as you say silky oaks that are not oaks, Australian magpies
that are not magpies... All fine with me since these have become the
"legitimate" common names. However the common name for the koala is the
koala, pure and simple. "Koala bear" just grates... - and makes me think
that the user should be educated to know better (sorry if this offends,
maybe it is just me assuming a superiority when I should not). All right,
I'll shut up now, and run away fast!!

Tony Rees, New South Wales, Australia
https://about.me/TonyRees


On Mon, 25 Jan 2021 at 04:50, Richard Jensen via Taxacom <
taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu> wrote:

> Tony Reese wrote:
>
> >>(1) "Koala bear-like animal with carnivorous teeth" - no bear references
> >>PLEASE!! Koalas are koalas, pure and simple, and about as far away
> >>(phylogenetically) from bears as you can get and still be a mammal.
>
> Oh no! Gone is "Teddy Bear"; so to the "Australian silver oak"; no more
> "seahorses"; extinction of "lady bugs"; disappearance of "butterfly weed";?
>
> I was not aware that Koala bear was a name of confusion, based on illusion,
> or simply allusion. Do we really believe such names can deceive? Or can we
> forebear, with little despair, that names we all know, from quite long ago,
> need not agree with phylogeny?
>
> Cheers,
>
> Dick
> --
> Richard Jensen, Professor Emeritus
> Department of Biology
> Saint Mary's College
> Notre Dame, IN 46556
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