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mollwollfumble 724388. Wed Jun 30, 2010 1:38 am Again I don't know if this question has appeared on QI, but if not then it would be suitable.



Q: Which living animal has a common name in English that is the same as its scientific (binomial) name?



Comment : I've only been able to find one. There are plenty of plants whose common name is the same as its scientific name. A few living animals, like "Lynx lynx", whose common name is "Lynx", have the common name repeated as a scientific name. Another is "Gorilla gorilla". There are a few extinct animals whose common name equals their binomial scientific name, of whom "Tyranosaurus rex" is the best known. But I only found one living animal.



A : Boa constrictor.

mollwollfumble 724392. Wed Jun 30, 2010 1:50 am > A few living animals, like "Lynx lynx"



and "Caracal caracal". I'm sure there are at least two more.

mckeonj 724408. Wed Jun 30, 2010 3:43 am mus mus=mouse

busk31 724439. Wed Jun 30, 2010 5:44 am Addax, Alligator, Amoeba, Anoa, Anhinga anhinga, Bison bison, Caiman, Caracal caracal caracal, Chinchilla, Colobus, Conger conger, Dugong, Gorilla gorilla, Hippopotamus, Hydra, Hyena hyena, Iguana iguana, Jabiru, Junco, Lemur, Loris, Lynx lynx, Mastodon, Manta, Mantis, Nautilus, Octopus, Oryx, Paramecium, Puma, Python, Rhea, Rhinoceros, Sphinx (the moth, not the mythical half-lion), Thrips, Vireo



Gekko gecko

Connochaetes gnu

Capra ibex L.

Equus onager Boddaert

Orcinus orca

Agouti paca (paca) The agouti is in the genus Dasyprocta

Equus quagga quagga Gmelin

Leptailurus serval

Catharacta skua

Equus zebra





#Boa constrictor used to be in this category, but it was later changed to Constrictor constrictor.

Flash 724442. Wed Jun 30, 2010 6:02 am If mollwollfumble's original suggestion (that Boa constrictor is unique amongst extant species in this respect) is true then that might indeed be rather a nice snippet for the show. The same is true of Tyrannosaurus rex , but can we find other extant species?

busk31 724450. Wed Jun 30, 2010 6:22 am This could be helpfull: http://www.curioustaxonomy.net/

RLDavies 724454. Wed Jun 30, 2010 6:47 am The common names of all dinosaurs (and most other prehistoric creatures) are their genus names. T. rex is unique in that its species name is familiar to the public.



You could argue that E. coli is a name well known to the public, although there aren't many who could tell you that the E stands for Escherichia .

djgordy 724505. Wed Jun 30, 2010 8:17 am mollwollfumble wrote:

Q: Which living animal has a common name in English that is the same as its scientific (binomial) name?



Comment : I've only been able to find one. There are plenty of plants whose common name is the same as its scientific name. A few living animals, like "Lynx lynx", whose common name is "Lynx", have the common name repeated as a scientific name. Another is "Gorilla gorilla". There are a few extinct animals whose common name equals their binomial scientific name, of whom "Tyranosaurus rex" is the best known. But I only found one living animal.



A : Boa constrictor.

Strictly speaking, Boa Constricor is a species but there are a number of subspecies. The nominate subspecies is actually Boa constrictor constrictor. So the identity between taxonomic and common name of any individual animal isn't quite exact.



"Homo sapiens" is often used as a common name.

Starfish13 724513. Wed Jun 30, 2010 8:50 am Organisms with a tautonym, e.g. Lynx lynx, only occur in the animal kingdom. Plants never have a specific name that repeats the genus name.



Also, many species lack a common name, and are therefore only known by their binomial.

thedrew 724651. Wed Jun 30, 2010 5:25 pm djgordy wrote: "Homo sapiens" is often used as a common name.



I believe their English common name is "human."

Ion Zone 724663. Wed Jun 30, 2010 6:04 pm I think he meant that almost everyone knows that one and it is used fairly often.

MinervaMoon 724673. Wed Jun 30, 2010 6:59 pm Boa constrictor would seem to be unique among living animals, though among plants, there are species such as Gingko bilboa and Aloe vera.

djgordy 724684. Thu Jul 01, 2010 2:56 am "Beep" for Minerva. The identity doesn't work for the boa constrictor for reasons I outlined above. There are, according to Wikipedia, 10 subspecies of boa constrictor.



Boa constrictor amarali;

Boa constrictor constrictor

Boa constrictor imperator

Boa constrictor longicauda

Boa constrictor melanogaster

Boa constrictor nebulosa

Boa constrictor occidentalis

Boa constrictor orophias

Boa constrictor ortonii

Boa constrictor sabogae



So, if you had a pet snake (called "Fluffy" as pet snakes often seem to be) and said "this is my pet boa constrictor, whose common name is the same as its taxonomic name", you would, strictly speaking be wrong as you would be using the genus and species name but ignoring the subspecies name.



My comment about Hom sap was a little tongue in cheek and, anyway, would suffer from the same objection as the one for the boa constrictor. Modern humans are the only extant subspecies of Homo sapiens but there have been others in the past, such as Homo sapiens neanderthalensis, so modern humans are, strictly speaking, Homo sapiens sapiens.

themoog 724713. Thu Jul 01, 2010 4:41 am But the question was about species and specifically mentioned binomial. So why bother with subspecies?



Boa constrictor appears to be a perfect example. I wonder if there are others.



Aloe vera is a good example from the plant world but I'd suggest Gingko biloba is known commonly as Gingko rather than by the binomial.