Hmmmm… The guide didn’t say the mountain goat isn’t a mountain… So I guess I’ll go catch me me own mountain!
They’re called Mountain Goats 'cause they’re the GOAT.
Hermit Crab - what kind of hermit would be so obsessed with real estate deals?
I never see a hermit crab by itself, there’s always at least a hundred of them together
It May Fly, but does it???
Does it???
It does for a bit, and it’s more like a Junefly in my experience
In Canada they’re junebugs
Prairie oyster: Not an oyster
See also: Rocky Mountain Oysters
Mostly found in the ocean
That one’s to catch out foreigners. I’m convinced.
Source: foreigner that will never be caught out but might very well have if he didn’t know a South Dakotan.
Do they actually serve those anywhere?
I saw them on a menu in Calgary once.
Almost like those names were made for morphological categorization rather than a phylogenetic categorization where we use a completely different naming scheme.
Not sure what the original source of this was, other than an old tumblr post
Hello my baby, hello my honey, hello my ragtime gal.
Here’s the original tumblr thread just in case
Nobody has mentioned mountain oysters.
Is the guy on stage squatting one out?
Mayfly indeed may fly, give it a pass!
Also that is around spring/summer.
Which I find pretty accurate for their name since they might not hatch immediately at the end of April, where spring starts. It makes more sense for Mayflies to be mostly absent in April, but everywhere in May.
A mountain goat is a goat, it’s just not in genus Capra.
Fun trip and interesting trip through taxonomy, though, in addition to the gags. A collection of wikipedia articles would be a nice companion.
it’s just not in genus Capra
That’s definitionally what goats are. It’s close, being in the same subfamily, but then so are sheep.
I think words like “goat” should have a generic and unstudied applicability: if it looks like a goat, and acts like a goat, it’s a goat.
A mountain goat looks like a goat and acts like a goat, therefore it is a goat.
A sheep neither looks like a goat, nor acts like a goat, therefore it is not a goat.
All semantics, of course. If you want to understand goat to mean “member of genus Capra”, you certainly can. If you want me to make goat mean that, you’re out of luck.
I’m willing to grant you the distinctions between goats and true goats, in deference to the science of biology. I am not a monster.
Well you talk about ‘goat like behaviour’, how many different types of goat cling to the side of mountains like some kind of Rock Lobster?
My experience of goats is mainly in fields like, oh I dunno, a sheep?
Goats cosplay being in mountains no matter where they are. Goat yards are litered with large object topped by goats. Goat yoga is a thing.
This is very jackdaw.
It’s clobberin’ time.
Wait until you find out what a fish is.
I’m willing to grant you the distinctions between goats and true goats, in deference to the science of biology.
Well that’s my point: this post is about how common names contrast with actual, rigid taxonomical definitions. :p
Like the colloquial word “goat” fits, but your comment read to me, given the context of the post, like you were saying goats can exist outside Capra via a technical definition, which isn’t true.
now do it with fish!
Phylogenetically, “fish” are simply all non-tetrapod vertebrates.
Yes, we don’t disagree on the biology… I’m just emphasizing the nature of colloquial language as a crowdsourced effort and distinguishing it from the technical rigors of taxonomy.
Found the python programmer.
Nice ouroboros definition
genus Capra
Ahh so thats what Capra Demon is
The goat head on the dude didn’t give it away?
If you look at the Wikipedia pages for many of these animals, they’ll use terms like, “true eel,” “true goat,” and “true cobra.” I guess that’s how they generally handle animals that share common names despite not technically being in the correct family or whatever.
If you really need to be specific the scientific name or phylogenetic genus is there if you need to avoid the popular morphological name. Trying to fit the two together will always cause problems. For an example, see “fish.”
The Eastern Kingbird may perhaps rule over the eastern part of the west.
Forgot to include the Blue Tit
They have blue on their head and back and are part of the Paridae family.
So they don’t belong on the cartoon as they are both blue (at least in a large part) and tits.
I thought a bird was a finger not tits 🤔
- Horseshoe crab – Not a crab.
- Hermit crab – Not a crab.
- King crab – Not a crab (but, in fact, a hermit crab).
- Porcelain crab – Not a crab.
We’re headed toward a weird collision of memes, where everything becomes crabs, but nothing is one.
Camel spider - Not a camel, Not a spider.
Not only that, but horseshoe crabs are closer to camel spiders than they are to crabs – closer, in fact, than horseshoe crabs are to bees, which themselves are (recently) crustaceans.
Not sure why you got downvoted, btw; great example.
Bees are crustaceans‽
Were.
Coconut crab - Not a coconut
Cocconut tree - Not a tree
Wait… What are they then? Really tall shrubs?
I thought they were ferns but I was wrong, turns out they are grass.
Palm trees are angiosperms, which means flowering plants. They are monocots which means their seeds produce a single, leaf-like cotyledon when they sprout. This makes palms closely related to grasses and bamboos.
But, in fact, a hermit crab!
No Such Thing As A Fish
That’s actually not true, funnily! There’s no such monophyletic thing as a fish, but “fish” has a very clear, commonly accepted definition in modern science, namely non-tetrapod vertebrates.
Which is the point.
All these animal names (goat / crab / fish / etc) have accepted meanings. They may not match specific genus, but that’s ok.
All these animal names (goat / crab / fish / etc) have accepted meanings. They may not match specific genus, but that’s ok.
That’s not what I’m referring to. “Fish” has an accepted scientific meaning. The accepted scientific meaning for “goat” is the genus Capra; the accepted scientific meaning for “crab” is the infraorder Brachyura. Among phylogeneticists, a “fish” is a non-tetrapod vertebrate, which unlike the other two is paraphyletic but nevertheless creates a completely rigid definition. It’s not about “matching a specific genus”; it’s about being well-defined among scientists.
These all have strict definitions that don’t resort to “well, it looks like [thing], so toss it on the pile.” There literally is such a thing as a fish.
Porcelain crab – Not a crab.
And not made of porcelain
- Imitation Crab - a crab
I’m pretty sure when a snake has ‘king’ in it’s name, that’s because it eats other snakes.
Snake: “Who voted for the Devour the Snakes party?”
Other snakes: “… I thought they would only eat the snakes I dislike…”
Just like human kings do!
I really hope this doesn’t apply to the birds as well!
Fascinating on King Cobras, I had no idea!
Yeah, it’s little known but true fact that snakes do, indeed, not recognize any monarchical systems at all!
“I didn’t vote for you!”
You don’t vote for cobras!
It’s well-known that snakes are right-wing libertarians.
So you’re telling me that snakes know a lot about child support and the age of consent laws?
That’s racist! Snake voice against snakeland!
