Thursday, January 17, 2008

Plaices & Names

A couple of weeks ago, I went to the American Museum of Natural History in hopes of seeing their "Mythical Creatures" exhibit. It was sold out, alas, but I then wandered the halls enjoying the many animal exhibits, including the wonderful names and physiognomies of some of the creatures. I offer these now in hopes they will bring a little natural, nomenclatural, polysyllabic delight to your day:

  • Bloodbelly Comb Jelly
  • Cookie-Cutter Shark (a truly creepy but cool fish -- read the link to find out why)
  • Stoplight Loosejaw (also awesome)
  • Black-Blotched Porcupinefish
  • False Cleanerfish
  • Juvenile Snook
  • Sheepshead Seabream
  • Tripodfish (check out the picture -- it's one of those creatures that proves that if God is the Creator, he has a sense of humor)
  • Powderblue Surgeonfish
  • Jericho Worms (fascinating and weird)
  • Stonechat
  • Eurasian Wryneck
  • Alpine Accentor
  • Common Siskin
  • Yellow-Hooded Wagtail
  • Ruddy Shelduck
  • Whooper Swan
  • Great Bustard
  • Black-Faced Cuckoo Shrike
  • Superb Lyrebird
  • Crimson Rosella
  • Glossy Drongo
  • Nkulenga Wood Rail
  • White-Bearded Bulbul
  • Lemon-Rumped Tinkerbird
  • Cameroon Sombre Greenbul
  • Variable Sunbird
  • Fiscal Shrike (always appears at tax season)
  • Rattling Cisticola
  • Spectacled Antipitta
  • Broad-Billed Motmot
  • Cinnamon-Bellied Ground Tyrant
  • Scale-Throated Earthcreeper
  • Greater Yellowlegs
  • Lesser Yellowlegs
  • Pectoral Sandpiper
  • Pomarine Jaeger
  • Common Stilt
  • Bufflehead

9 comments:

  1. LOL, I bet there are a lot of middle school teachers who are convinced their class is made up of juvenile snooks.

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  2. Glossy Drongo!!


    *rolls about in laughter!*


    I kinda think I know the source of D. Adam's wicked wit now :D

    ~Nomadica

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  3. Those sea creatures have nothing on the cymothoa exigua.

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  4. Lemon-Rumped Tinkerbird! Made my morning.

    Scale-Throated Earthcreeper sounds way too creepy to be a cute little bird...

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  5. Love these! For what is worth, I was very underwhelmed and disappointed at the Mythical Creatures exhibit.

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  6. Butterfly names are fun too:
    Looper Moth
    Cobweb Skipper
    Confused Cloudy Wing
    Blind-Eyed Sphinx
    Skippers
    Hairstreaks
    Geometers
    Metalmarks

    and Dotted Angle of Wood.

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  7. I've ruminated over these polysyllabic delights all weekend. Thanks for the tasty brain treat.

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  8. The sadly dorky truth is that I've sought out and seen a lot of those birds...

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  9. This seems like such a masterful name that I must find out what it looks like:
    Cinnamon-Bellied Ground Tyrant

    A ground TYRANT!? Yes!

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