legok9

[legok9]

I think I stumbled upon some kind of ichthyological forbidden knowledge. Opened up a book of names that were never meant to be read.

You've probably heard of "can-opener smoothdream", right? It's practically a meme by now.

But the thing is, it's a deep-sea fish. And deep-sea fish have historically not had English names because nobody drops them into the conversation over a hot cuppa. Sure, there's generic stuff like hatchetfish and barreleye, but when you want to refer to the actual fish you're probably saying such euphonious phrases as Diretmus argenteus, Sternoptyx diaphana, or maybe even Opisthoproctus soleatus.

So whence "can-opener smoothdream"? Certainly no non-ichthyologist has ever used that name. It's not even a direct translation of the scientific name Chaenophryne longiceps - that would be "long-headed gape-toad". Which to me is even cooler than "can-opener smoothdream".

But I digress. The "dream" bit comes from the anglerfish family Oneirodidae, from oneiros, "dream", because those marvelous fishes look like they came out of a dream (Pietsch, 2009).

Note that Pietsch (2009), more or less the anglerfish bible, uses English names at the genus level only. So Chaenophryne is the smoothhead dreamers genus but no mention is made of "can-opener smoothdreams". So no luck there.

Wikipedia, root cause of a lot of misinformation, has this to say.

"Longhead dreamer" is a far more accurate name. And in fact, despite Wikipedia prioritizing "can-opener smoothdream" (because it's funny?), the links listed use "longhead dreamer" and "smoothhead dreamer" as the name and "can-opener smoothdream" as an alternative.

So. Again. Where did "can-opener smoothdream" come from?

The answer, as it turns out, lies with McAllister (1990).

In the book A List of the Fishes of Canada, ichthyologist D. E. McAllister sought out to list every single fish known to Canadian waters, providing both an English and a French name.

And when there wasn't an English name, like for most deep-sea fishes, he arbitrarily gave them a name. And his names "differ in many instances from the widely accepted names" (Holm, 1998)

This had varying results. This is his name for one of the netdevil anglerfishes.

The humpback anglerfish or blackdevil anglerfish becomes a werewolf (????).

This one is just confusing.

The white-spotted lanternfish or Rafinesque's lanternfish instead becomes...

And most embarrassingly, the Mediterranean spiderfish gets saddled with something that "violates the tenet of good taste" (Holm, 1998).

This then is the original source of "can-opener smoothdream". It was invented by an ichthyologist in 1990, and has seen little to no use outside of how bizarre the name is.

Maybe McAllister's goofier names will catch on. Who knows? They certainly aren't very popular in the scientific community though.

References

Holm, E. (1998) Encyclopedia of Canadian Fishes (review). The Canadian Field-Naturalist, 112, p. 174-175.

McAllister, D. E. (1990) A List of the Fishes of Canada. National Museum of Natural Sciences, Ottawa.

Pietsch, T. W. (2009) Oceanic Anglerfishes: Extraordinary Diversity in the Deep Sea. University of California Press, Berkeley.

[legok9]

COMPANIONS

aaaaaah looking at them all together is so satisfying!! and i’m so proud of actually finishing this🥰

#doctor who

[legok9]

I AM THAT IS

#redwall

[legok9]

Narrow-headed Softshell Turtle (Chitra indica), family Trionychidae, found in rivers and other waterways of the Indian Sub-continent

ENDANGERED.

Predatory, feeding on a wide variety of small aquatic vertebrates and large invertebrates.

Endangered due to over-harvesting (for food) and habitat degradation.

photographs: Shailendra Singh, Turtle Conservancy, Turtle Survival Alliance

[legok9]

conversation I have with my ferret 1000x a day

[legok9]

The Birth of Venus by Botticelli figure/bjd

Part of The Table Museum collection by Freeing

Link: |X|

It’s super breathtaking:

[legok9]

I drew him :>

[legok9]

Neil!!!

[legok9]

Galapagos Lava Lizard (Microlophus albemarlensis), family Tropiduridae, sitting on a Marine Iguana (Amblyrhynchus cristatus), family Iguanidae, Fernandina Island, Galapagos

photographs by Rachelle Mackintosh

[legok9]

Ummmmmm, yes, hi, Hornbill at the Philly Zoo has a little kitty cat toy and wants to show it to you.

[legok9]

Rainbow mo

[legok9]

her ruby eye, wings of pearl

Collared doves aren't the most exotic or beautiful birds, but I'm sure they make a great meal for local raptors, and I think that's wonderful

[legok9]

yeah man we can tell

[legok9]

got my hands on a field guide of californian bugs and i found that there's this one bee species in southern california that looks like this

(Actual bugs under the cut, CW for insects)

[legok9]

#0299

Nosepass

[legok9]

Happy Solar Eclipse Day!

Artemis and Apollo seemed rather fitting :)

[legok9]

What is a Dinosaur poster

Ever felt the need to explain to someone why Pteranodon or Mosasaurus aren’t dinosaurs? This poster will make that so much easier! It features a simplified cladogram illustrating how different dinosaur groups relate to each other, as well as how they are related to other iconic extinct animals that more often than not get mislabelled as “dinosaurs”.

252mya.com/what

Art by Greco Westermann