Comment on Blobfish

logicbomb@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

The name information is incorrect.

Psychrolutes is the genus, not the species.

Psychrolutes is a genus of marine ray-finned fishes belonging to the family Psychrolutidae, the fatheads and toadfishes. […] There are currently 11 recognized species in this genus

The binomial name of the blobfish is Psychrolutes marcidus. But realistically, “binomial name” is not always the same as “proper name”. There are a lot of animals whose common names include misconceptions, or even insults. Just look at the information about Psychrolutidae (that’s the Family) above. “Fatheads” sounds insulting, and “Toadfishes” aren’t toads.

I wouldn’t have even bothered looking this up, except that the artist wrote the “proper name” so poorly that I first read it as “Psychrd Lutes”. And the second reading, I misread as “Psychiro Lutes”, due to the weird “R” that looks like none of their other Rs. I read it correctly the third time, but I have to wonder at the wisdom of not writing it clearly when you’re trying to emphasize how it is spelled.

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