Biologists are a cheeky lot, and their latest Twitter joke is a doozy. They're making fun of animals with nonsensical common names.
Common names are exactly what they sound like: The names of animals people are more familiar with, different from their scientific or species name. For example, a cat's common name is a cat, obviously. Its scientific name is Felis catus. Only sometimes the names we call creatures are pretty silly.
Shark researcher and blogger David Shiffman decided to get the ball rolling on this latest hashtag on Tuesday afternoon.
And in the last couple hours, the hilarious tweets have swelled to a cacophony. Here's a list of our favorites.Image via Marshmallowbunnywabbit/Wikimedia (CC BY 3.0)
