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What's in a Name?
Nurse Sharks | Penguin | Pinnipeds | Nautilus
Contrary to what the name might lead you to believe, nurse sharks (Ginglymostoma cirratum) do not suckle their young. They do not heal ailing sea creatures, nor do they accompany doctor fish on reef rounds. In fact, as a prominent Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean reef predator, the nurse shark is more marauder than nurturer.
Some attribute the origin of the nurse shark's name to the sounds it makes when it feeds. A bellow-like pharynx rapidly expands the shark's gill and mouth cavities, creating a powerful suction that siphons shellfish prey from between rock crevices. The noise made from this vacuum-like noshing is likened to that of a nursing baby.
It's more likely that the common name was derived from the Old English term for a seafloor shark. Smaller sharks common to the British Isles were termed huss, husse, or hurse. In medieval England, the “n� from an was often transferred to the next word if it began with a vowel. Hence, an hurse became a nurse. Early English settlers probably named the bottom-dwelling New World shark after those familiar to them in England.
The truest description of the shark lies in its scientific name. Ginglymostoma is derived from the Greek words gynglimos, meaning “hinge� and stoma, meaning “mouth.� The species name cirratum is from the Latin word for curl. Thus, “the shark with the hinged, curly mouth� most accurately portrays this noteworthy fish.
—Kit Sergeant
From the 2004 January/February issue of ZooGoer
The 17 species of penguins come in various sizes and colors, but all belong to the family Spheniscidae, from the Greek meaning "little wedge." This is a reference to all penguins' small wedge-shaped wings. Diversity in other characteristics has led to some interesting species names. Perhaps the oddest is the African, or jackass, penguin, Speniscus demersus. The species name demersus is from the Latin demergo, meaning "I sink," perhaps referring to the birds' deep dives.
The better known English name is derived from the jackass penguin’s peculiar call, which allegedly sounds like a donkey's bray. Also apropos is the Adélie penguin of Antartica, Pygoscelis adeliae. The genus name comes from the Greek puge, or rump, and skelos: leg. Adélies’ legs are set well back on their rump, giving them their completely upright stance. The species was discovered by the French Admiral J.S.C. Dumont d’Urville, who bestowed upon the birds the name Adélie in honor of his wife.
—by Sarah Flaherty
ZooGoer 29(1) 2000. Copyright 2000 Friends of the National Zoo. All rights reserved.
Hermes, the high-speed courier of Greek mythology who sported wings on his heels, may have been agile in the air. But when it comes to manuevering in the water, he has nothing on the wing-footed mammals: the seals, sea lions, and walruses of the suborder Pinnipedia.
The name "pinniped" derives from the Latin words pinna (feather or wing) and pedis (foot), describing sleek hind limbs that have evolved into flippers. The sea lions and furred seals belonging to the family Otaridae (from the Greek root ot for "ear") have scroll-like external ear flaps, and propel themselves through the water with their fore-flippers.
True seals in the family Phocidae (from the Greek root phoc for seal) lack ear flaps and are unable to raise themselves on their foreflippers, opting instead to flop ungracefully across ice and rock. Unlike eared seals, true seals swim by powerful sideways movements of their hindquarters, using their foreflippers only for steering.
Eighteenth-century zoologists occasionally observed walruses using their tusks as ice axes to haul themselves out onto ice floes, and named the family of walruses Odobenidae, a contraction of the Greek words odontos and baenos, literally meaning "tooth-walk." Those fearsome looking tusks make good ice choppers, but are primarily used by males to establish their place in the dominance hierarchy. Simply by adopting postures that display the size of their tusks, dominant males can move unchallenged into the most comfortable or advantageous positions on the beach.
—Compiled by Alex Hawes and Tim Stoddard
ZooGoer 29(2) 2000. Copyright 2000 Friends of the National Zoo. All rights reserved.
When the Western world saw its first chambered nautilus (Nautilus pompilius), it quickly became intrigued with the strange creature. People imagined that the animal had a membrane that served as a sort of underwater sail. By the time this myth was disproved, it was too late. The name, nautilus—from the Latin and Greek words for “sailor”—stuck to these living fossils.
Quite a few things have been named after the ancient mariners since then. One is the paper nautilus, a small Mediterranean octopus. In contrast with the chambered nautilus, the paper nautilus has a smaller and thinner protective shell with no air chambers, which the animal can leave behind when it wishes. To distinguish between this octopus and its shelled cousins, the paper nautilus is now properly called Argonauta.
Outside the zoological world, Jules Verne immortalized nautiluses in literary tradition when he named Captain Nemo’s vessel Nautilus in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. The U.S. Navy followed suit, using the same name for its first nuclear-powered submarine.
For fitness-conscious Americans, perhaps the most familiar thing named after the tough invertebrates is the Nautilus brand of exercise equipment, which reminds the user of the strength of these remarkable creatures’ shells in withstanding 2,000 feet of water pressure. Although they cannot venture down 20,000 leagues, nautiluses can still dive far deeper than most fish or humans dare go.
—Alex Hawes and Katie Venit
ZooGoer 29(6) 2000. Copyright 2000 Friends of the National Zoo. All rights reserved.
