Posted by:
oldherper
at Fri Jan 7 12:13:30 2005 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by oldherper ]
 Nah, I don't think anyone would laugh..at least not riotously.
I think everyone understands that Taxonomy is an enormously complicated thing, especially for those with no training or experience with it. It is a fairly simple system of classification, in and of itself, but there's a lot to it. Especially when you figure in the inconsistencies that are bound to result from any human endeavor, the changes that take place almost on a daily basis, and the disagreements even amongst experts....plus the fact that it's primarilay based on a "dead" foriegn language (there IS a good reason fot that, though).
With all that in mind, I think that any attempt to learn and use it is actually appreciated.
It would probably be easier for us English speakers if it were based on English. Agkistrodon piscivorous would become "hook-toothed fish-eater", Drymarchon corais would become "dark chief of the forest", Pituophis melanoleucus would become "black and white pine snake"...etc., but imagine how we would sound talking like that. Plus if take the case of the Pine Snake, what if you were speaking of a Black Pine Snake? Then it would be "black and white pine snake named for H.P.Loding", which would not be accurate at all, because it's not really black and white. The whole idea of the system is accuracy. We want names that we can use that mean the same for everyone so that when we mention a specific name the person we're speaking to knows exactly which animal we're speaking of. So, in reality, we would probably have completely different English names for them...such as Cottonmouth, Northern Pine Snake, Yellowtail Cribo...Oh...wait a minute....
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We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children. Ralph Waldo Emerson
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RE: Thanks, I'm wrapping my head - oldherper, Fri Jan 7 12:13:30 2005