this post was submitted on 15 Dec 2025
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Science Memes

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[–] Quilotoa@lemmy.ca 44 points 2 days ago (4 children)

Not to mention the actual names. "There's a bear. What should we call it?" "Well, it's black. Let's call it a Black Bear." "How about that one? It's brown." "We'll call it a Brown Bear."

[–] zqwzzle@lemmy.ca 39 points 2 days ago (2 children)
[–] marcos@lemmy.world 27 points 2 days ago

The bony-eared assfish has been distinguished, by some sources, as having the smallest brain-to-body weight ratio of any vertebrate.

When biologists decide to burn something, they just go on and on.

yeah but those are jerks

[–] JasonDJ@lemmy.zip 18 points 2 days ago

First two sound like Ubuntu releases.

[–] Track_Shovel@slrpnk.net 13 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Fun fact, the original word for bear has been lost because people refused to mention them directly - like Voldemort

[–] GandalftheBlack@feddit.org 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

This isn't really true though. Although many IE langauges don't use a descendant of *h₂r̥ktos for taboo reasons, plenty of languages do, e.g. French ours, Albanian ari, Greek άρκτος, Welsh arth etc.

[–] FishFace@piefed.social 7 points 2 days ago

All original words have been lost because language changes...

[–] Deceptichum@quokk.au 8 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Ah but they’re not called bears, we just have to call them that or we upset the bear god who will end us if we say their real name.

[–] ZILtoid1991@lemmy.world 15 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Turdus Migratorius

ICE will deport this bird.

[–] Renat@szmer.info 8 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Fun fact - this bird live in Mexico in winter but in other seasons it moves to USA.

[–] TheTurner@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 day ago

Can confirm. I see them spring to fall.

[–] lvxferre@mander.xyz 23 points 2 days ago

Birds in the genus Turdus totally deserve the name. They're like:

  • "Look! Cat food! Yummy!"
  • "Why are there cats here? FLY AWAY!"
  • "Why is the air solid? Perhaps if I hit it over and over I'll fly past it!"

Every single time this happened I managed to save the turd (they should be glad one of my cats is senile and the other overweight), but then the laundry room is full of turd turds and feathers and my cats spend hours looking for the missing bird.

(inb4 yes, "thrush". Fuck it, I'm still calling them "turds". Turdus rufiventris, aka rust-bellied turds.)

[–] Sarcasmo@piefed.social 23 points 2 days ago

Turdus is looking disgruntled.

[–] Yaky@slrpnk.net 14 points 2 days ago

IIRC the "migratorius" part is only partially true, they migrate, but relatively short distances, so their year-round range is still pretty much the entire continental US.

They do gather into flocks in fall-winter and then split back into pairs in spring-summer, which is interesting.

[–] massive_bereavement@fedia.io 9 points 2 days ago (1 children)
[–] generallynonsensical@lemmy.world 7 points 2 days ago (1 children)
[–] Pegajace@lemmy.world 5 points 2 days ago (1 children)
[–] Track_Shovel@slrpnk.net 4 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Bison bison bison

Or pica hudsonica

[–] Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 5 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

rattus rattus. Felis margarita

[–] ZoopZeZoop@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago

Mephitis mephitis!

[–] MistressRemilia@lemmy.sdf.org 7 points 2 days ago

It's so cool how scientists named ravens after the primarch of the Raven Guard in 40k 😌