this post was submitted on 25 Mar 2025
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Science Memes

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Blobfish (lemmy.dbzer0.com)
submitted 6 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] [email protected] 35 points 5 days ago (2 children)

The name information is incorrect.

Psychrolutes is the genus, not the species.

Psychrolutes is a genus of marine ray-finned fishes belonging to the family Psychrolutidae, the fatheads and toadfishes. [...] There are currently 11 recognized species in this genus

The binomial name of the blobfish is Psychrolutes marcidus. But realistically, "binomial name" is not always the same as "proper name". There are a lot of animals whose common names include misconceptions, or even insults. Just look at the information about Psychrolutidae (that's the Family) above. "Fatheads" sounds insulting, and "Toadfishes" aren't toads.

I wouldn't have even bothered looking this up, except that the artist wrote the "proper name" so poorly that I first read it as "Psychrd Lutes". And the second reading, I misread as "Psychiro Lutes", due to the weird "R" that looks like none of their other Rs. I read it correctly the third time, but I have to wonder at the wisdom of not writing it clearly when you're trying to emphasize how it is spelled.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 days ago (1 children)

That's not entirely correct either, because apparently "blobfish" can also refer to the wider Psychrolutidae family, also known as fathead sculpins, meaning that other species from the Psychrolutidae family get referred to as "blobfish". So blobfish != exclusively Psychrolutes marcidus, which makes OP's post more accurate than your comment.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 days ago

So blobfish != exclusively Psychrolutes marcidus, which makes OP’s post more accurate than your comment.

I never said what you're accusing me of saying. When Y corrects X, it is possible to say that Y is wrong without saying that X is right.

Even when I referred to it once as "blobfish", that was to state its binomial name, not to state that "blobfish" was correct. OP used the term "blobfish" in exactly the same way. It's logically impossible for OP's post to be "more accurate" than mine.