When you buy through links on our site , we may earn an affiliate commission . Here ’s how it works .
In the beast kingdom , organisms can be name after anything — an odd behavior , a strange sound and even a funny show . The appoint system requires all brute to have two terms ; a name that designate the genus and species .
Although limited by sure rules , taxonomists have found a way to show off their sentience of witticism . From the second to painfully pun - full , here are some of the best named animal metal money .
Aha ha
Meet the white Anglo-Saxon Protestant whose stinger is n’t the only thing that will leave you in stitches — theAha hawasp .
In the 1970s , wasp devotee and entomologist Howard Ensign Evans spend geezerhood gather up wasp specimens to send to his friend for testing and report . After his travel in Australia , Evans sent two specimen to Arnold Menke , a fellow bug-hunter at the systematic entomology science laboratory for the Agricultural Research Center .
Upon open up the parcel , Menke calculate at the white Anglo-Saxon Protestant and exclaimed"Aha ! A new species ! " to which his workfellow , Eric Grissell , responded in disbelief , " ha ! " . In fact , Menke was right-hand , it was a new genus of white Anglo-Saxon Protestant belonging to the kin , Sphecidae , which are thread - waisted wasps that have skinny waists and paralyze their prey .
Gorilla gorilla
A name so nice , you say it twice . The name of the western gorilla is a tautonym , a scientific name where the genus and species are both the same word .
The western Gorilla gorilla ( gorilla gorilla ) isone of two metal money of gorilla in the earth . There are two subspecies . One is the western lowland gorilla ( Gorilla gorilla Gorilla gorilla ) whilethe other is the cross river gorilla ( Gorilla gorilla diehli ) .
The name was breathe in by antiquity . Around 2,500 class ago , a Punic admiral promise Hanno set cruise along the west glide of Africa . He chitchat a small island where he reported meeting " cruel hairy people , " which his interpreter send for " gorillai , " harmonize toreports .
We can not be certain what voice communication his interpreters talk or if the account is actually true . Despite this , American natural scientist Thomas S. Savage used the condition in thefirst scientific verbal description of the species -Troglodytes gorilla , nowknown as the western gorilla .
Boops boop
Much like the westerly Gorilla gorilla , the name of this big - eyed species of seabream is a tautonym — Boops boops . In Greek , the name translates to"ox - eyed , " and is inspired by the fact that it has large , orotund eyesrelative to its small size .
Agra vation
Not many epithet capture attention like the caribid mallet , Agra vation . Its scientific name hints at both frustration and intrigue .
Conservation life scientist Terry L. Erwin created this cagey punning based onthe difficulties of accumulate beetle from the genusAgra .
These beetle are nocturnal , have svelte heads and are found high in the rainforest canopy . Erwin devise a proficiency called"canopy cloud " to collect these species — using thermal foggers and biodegradable insecticide to collect aggregate quantities of specimen that were hard to attain .
Before he die in 2020 , Erwin was creditworthy for describing438 species of Carabidae beetle , with figure such asAgra cadabraandAgra katewinslettae(after the far-famed English actress who starred in the pic " Titanic " ) .
Parastratiosphecomyia stratiosphecomyioides
The southeasterly asian soldier flee hasthe recollective scientific name of any brute — Parastratiosphecomyia stratiosphecomyioides .
In ancient Greek , its genus translate to " near soldier white Anglo-Saxon Protestant - tent-fly " and the species translates to " wasp - fly like . " The name come from its resemblance to a thread - waisted wasp — theclub - shaped abdominal cavity , long antennae and darkened wingsall make it look like a white Anglo-Saxon Protestant even though it has no cut . In evolutionary biology , this is get laid as mimicry .
Hotwheels sysyphus
MeetHotwheels sysyphus , the spider with a name as unequalled as its anatomy . conceive it or not , its name is in honor of its clear-cut genitalia .
A manly specimen of this species was get a line in the southwesterly ofChina . Scientists that canvas the wanderer found that the male sported along and curl embolus ( a tubular organ that inseminate the female)and that it resembled a Hot Wheels track .
The species name , sysyphus , is derived from a figure in Greek mythology . In the taradiddle , theking of Corinth , Sisyphus , is punished by Zeus to endlessly push a rock uphill , only to have it roll back down again . The wanderer ’s circular genitalia is resonant of Sisyphus ' cyclical punishment , ergo its metal money name .
Boselaphus tragocamelus
genus Boselaphus tragocamelusis a species with perhaps the best mashup of names from other animals:‘Bos ' is Latin for ox , ' elaphos ' , is Greek for cervid , ' tragos ' , is Greek for a male goat , and ' kamelos ' , is Greek for camel .
B. tragocamelusis in reality a large bovidfound in Indiaand Nepal . It is one of the largest bread and butter antelopes in the human beings — males can reach a toweringheight of 6.8 feet ( 2.1 meters ) .
This coinage was first draw in 1766 by German zoologist Peter Simon Pallas , who say its appearance was similar to a bunch of other animals , according to an article in theAmerican society of mammalogists . The oddball frolic a humped back like a camel , a horned and slender head like a goat or cervid and a trunk form similar to a cow .
Gelae baen
Gelae baen , gelae donutandgelae rolare small , round fungus beetles pronounced like the english word " jelly " and fancifully named after sweet treats . The genus , Gelae , is derived from the Latin Book " gelatus , " which mean " jellied " or " congealed . " It ’s an court to the beetles ' diet of fungal gook mould .
Han solo
Other species have been named after character from films , include the extinct trilobiteHan solo , list after the famous " Star Wars " fender .
In2005 , biologistSamuel Turveydescribed a trilobite establish in China ’s Hunan province . consort to the bailiwick , the genus nameHanwas break to honor the Han mass of China . The dodo was suspected to be the last subsist fellow member of the phratry , Diplagnostidae , which fall in wage increase to the specie namesolo .
afterward on , Turvey revealed that his friends dared him to pick that name as they believedmost of the characters ' names in the enfranchisement speech sound like scientific names .
Scrotum humanum
One of the first dinosaurs ever described was almost name after human testicles .
In 1763 , the humble death of a femur was found and report asScrotum humanumbecause of its resemblance to human ballock , according to a 2014 clause in the journalScience Vision .
It was first discovered nearly a century earlier in the Taynton Limestone Formation in Oxfordshire , England . Eventually , the conservator of the Ashmolean Museum , Robert Plot , publish an illustration of the dodo in the " lifelike chronicle of Oxfordshire . " The fogy sherd ’s large size led him to believe it belong to a Roman war elephant or a giant human .
In 1763 , physician Richard Brookes dubbed it " Scrotum humanum"and republished the unexampled name in his book , " The born History of Waters , Earths , Stones , Fossils and Minerals etc . "
It was until 1824 that geologist William Buckland discovered that the fogy was part of an extinct reptile . He determined it may have once been part of aMegalosaurus , based on similarities to other gargantuan fossil off-white he had find oneself .
Although the nameS. humanumis not used today , in 1970 palaeontologist Beverley Halstead argued that because it was published first and it followed the identify convention , it should still be accept .
Irritator challengeri
The not - so - insidious name of this dinosaur is a reflection of paleontologists ' frustration when they discovered someone had fiddle with their fossil .
paleontologist identifiedIrritator challengeribased on a partially crush skull found in the Santana Formation in Brazil . The skull was excavated and sold illicitly in 1996 by commercial diggers . The scientist who draw the mintage bank on CT CAT scan to piece together the original skull shape .
The scan bring out the fogey was heavily damaged during assembling and that it had an artificially constructed snout and a crack in the heart and soul of the skull that had been filled with car body makeweight .
Sphenacodon ferox and Sphenacodon ferocior
The genusSphenacodoncontains two coinage of early reptilian predators in the ultimate face-off for the best name : Sphenacodon feroxversusSphenacodon ferocior , otherwise known as " fierce " and " more fierce , " severally .
In 1878 , Yale paleontologist Othniel Charles Marshdescribed the first species in the genusSphenacodonfrom a section of a lower jaw find in northern New Mexico . In Greek , " sphenacodon " translates to " cuneus - point tooth , " based on the large , sharp teeth that were in the jaw . Because of these fearsome tooth , Marsh assigned it the species name " ferox , " which mean " furious " in Latin .
In 1937 , Alfred Sherwood Romer , a specializer in vertebrate evolution , described another speciesfrom a skull and a number of vertebrae found near Jemez Canyon in New Mexico . He described this species as morphologically similar toS. feroxbut with a body sizeup to 40 % largerand long sticker .
Preseucoila imallshookupis
Entomologist Matthew Buffington name the genus of this wasp mintage , Preseucoela , by combine Elvis Presley ’s last name with the suffix " -eucoela " — a Scripture French natural scientist Jean - Jacques Kieffer used to describe parasitic neotropical wasps , consort to the2004study where the species was identify . The species name is an court to The King ’s famous 1956 song " All judder Up . "
Ampulex dementor
Ampulex dementoris a coinage of wasp in the family Ampulicidae . These cockroach white Anglo-Saxon Protestant turn their quarry into submissive zombi , according to a 2010 study in the journalCommunicative and Integrative Biology .
The species name " dementor " come from the fictional " dementors " from the " Harry Potter " series . Dementors are soul - sucking , gloomy creature that feed on human happiness , leave their victims in a vegetative DoS .
Like its namesake , A. dementorinjects roach brains with a toxin that keeps the cockroach live but in a zombie spirit - alike state . The white Anglo-Saxon Protestant then deposits its eggs into the cockroach ’s eubstance . Once hatched , the youthful wasp larvae burst out and feed on the remains of the cockroach .
Sollasina cthulhu
Sollasina cthulhuis a 430 million - yr - old relative of living sea cucumbers . This tentacled critter live on the bottom of the seafloor , crawling around on its 42 tube feet to scavenge for food .
Because of its show , the species was named after a fictional abstruse - sea fiber from the fantasy poor tale " The Call of Cthulhu , " by H. P. Lovecraft . The Cthulhu was a tentacle - headed monster that kip in a metropolis at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean .
Scientists first describe the species in a 2019 study in the journalProceedings of the Royal Society B. Researchers described a dead conserve fossil specimen found in the Herefordshire Lagerstätte establishment in the United Kingdom . A 3D reconstruction of the dodo help trap down the animal as a distinct species .
Ajnabia odysseus
Ajnabia odysseusis thefirst duck - bill dinosaur to be found in Africa . It is a hadrosaur that lived during the LateCretaceous period , around 66 million years ago .
At that fourth dimension , the humanity was split into two mainsupercontinents : Laurasia ( North America , Asia and Europe ) in the Northern Hemisphere and Gondwana ( South America , Africa , Antarctica and Australia ) in the Southern Hemisphere .
Until the uncovering ofA. odysseus , scientist think hadrosaurids be only on the isolated supercontinent of Laurasia , because it was fence in by deep waters , harmonise to a 2010 clause in theZoological Journal of the Linnean Society .
The African dodo challenged the understanding of the dinosaur family ’s dispersal , as it express that a hadrosaur had crossed Admiralty mile of sea to touch Gondwana , agree to the2021study describe the mintage .
This long journey led the researchers to name the coinage after the ancient Greek wedge Odysseus , who famously embark on a 10 - year voyage home from Troy .
Geophilus persephone
Geophilus persephoneis a cave - dwell centipede that drop its total life in accomplished darkness .
G.persephonewas notice in surreptitious caves in France in the 1990s . It is named after the pansy of the underworld in Grecian mythology , in which Persephone was nobble by her uncle , Hades , god of the netherworld , who kidnap her as his bride ..
This coinage has a slender body , no eyes , and only 29 legs . It was the first soil centipede to be described as a troglobite , a coinage purely bound to underground habitats .
Geophilus hadesi
In 2015 , scientists described another underground species of soil centipede : Geophilus hadesi . It has adapt to spelunk life , thrive in utter dark and high humidity .
G. hadesiis the abstruse - dwelling centipede in the world , discover at a record book 3,609 feet ( 1,100 m ) .
Hydra viridissima
What delimit a species ? Inside the fierce public debate that ’s rocking biology to its inwardness
Read more :
— AI is rapidly key out Modern species . Can we swear the results ?
— What is a metal money ?
— 6 species that scientists got untimely
Hydrais a genus of modest freshwater animals with vasiform bodies and tentacles . They grow up to0.4 column inch ( 10 millimeters)long and eat worms , fish larvae and diminished crustacean .
They can regrow lost limbs and even grow a whole new organism from modest tissue fragments . Their body are made mainly of base cells , allowing these creatures to incessantly replace old cells andseemingly live forever .
The genus takes its name from the monster in Greek mythology . The serpent - same beast had many heads and was bred to kill Hercules ; when one head was cut off , two heads would grow back in its place .
This metal money is namedviridissima , which in Latin intend " the greenest . " It ’s burnished light-green appearing comes from its symbiotic relationship with an alga called Chlorella , that lives within its body .
Hoopoe
The Eurasian hoopoo is a bird with a bluff appearing and a unparalleled call .
Its Latin name is an onomatopoeia create from the " oop - oop - oop"sound of its call , according to theHelm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names .
