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Biologists join hilarious Twitter rant about nonsensical common animal names

Blue-footed boobies anyone? #StupidCommonNames

 

Cynthia McKelvey

Parsec

Posted on Sep 1, 2015   Updated on May 28, 2021, 1:25 am CDT

Biologists are a cheeky lot, and their latest Twitter joke is a doozy. They’re making fun of animals with nonsensical common names.

Common names are exactly what they sound like: The names of animals people are more familiar with, different from their scientific or species name. For example, a cat’s common name is a cat, obviously. Its scientific name is Felis catus. Only sometimes the names we call creatures are pretty silly. 

Shark researcher and blogger David Shiffman decided to get the ball rolling on this latest hashtag on Tuesday afternoon.

And in the last couple hours, the hilarious tweets have swelled to a cacophony. Here’s a list of our favorites.

https://twitter.com/mcmsharksxx/status/638815927216115712

https://twitter.com/mcmsharksxx/status/638817190473367553

https://twitter.com/mcmsharksxx/status/638818007507070976

https://twitter.com/Baroque97/status/638818221236224001

https://twitter.com/jgold85/status/638822070734864384

https://twitter.com/afewbugs/status/638823297052901376

https://twitter.com/afewbugs/status/638824086341201924

https://twitter.com/jgold85/status/638825184514846720

https://twitter.com/mcmsharksxx/status/638825348109463552

https://twitter.com/afewbugs/status/638826077599563776

https://twitter.com/SFriedScientist/status/638826622527799297

https://twitter.com/mcmsharksxx/status/638827968807079936

Image via Marshmallowbunnywabbit/Wikimedia (CC BY 3.0)

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*First Published: Sep 1, 2015, 11:34 pm CDT
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