DISCUSSION: Scientific Names for Pokemon

[Max1996]

Oh, well, uh, a few selected ones:

Wartortle: Hydrochelonia longaevus
Meowth: Felis felix (That was an easy one)
Psyduck: Anamagus vulgaris
Golduck: Anamagus superior
Abra: Abra abra
Kadabra: Abra kadabra (Not sorry)
Drowzee: Baku oneirophagus
Horsea: Hippocampus kawaii (Probably the nerdiest joke I've ever made)

Pretty good. Do you have a list of more of these somewhere?

 

[Beth Pavell]

I've got about twice as many finalised, maybe half as many sort of scribbled out

 

[canisaries]

the more we talk about this, the more fun it looks, i should try

but, you ever done arcanine?

 

[Beth Pavell]

I haven't so far. I suppose I could ... incidentally I can recommend The Naming of the Shrew (John Wright) when it comes to the history, rationale and rules behind nomenclature

 

[canisaries]

mostly i've just abused the hecc out of this article

for arcanine...
Cynopsis striatus? villosus? shisa?
fluffer pupper got many options

 

[Beth Pavell]

Well, let's see ... off the top of my head. I usually start with trying to fit the pokémon into an existing genus. I'll be the first to admit this doesn't make a lot of sense, but then neither does pokémon genetics and therefore the whole idea of pokémon taxonomy anyway. From a practical standpoint it gives us a place to start.

With that in mind, I think Canis is the obvious choice. I think we can safely ignore Arcanine's tiger stripes, since everything else about it is solidly canine. Next, the specific name. Specific names can actually be any language, usually latinised, but again for the sake of somewhere to start looking at Latin and latinised Greek is my starting point. In taxonomy it's generally frowned upon to mix Latin and Greek in the same name, but frankly that's too much like hard work.

Making some kind of reference to Arcanine as a Fire-type would be a bit too easy. I think I'd want to reference the possible inspiration from komainu/guardian lions. komainu alone would probably be ok, if a bit unimaginative. Canis aegis? Not bad, but not quite what Arcanine represents. Canis defensor? Canis chaetes would be accurate, if lacking majesty

 

[Nitro Indigo]

Not sure if this is grammatically correct, but Pyrocanis pseudotigris? (Fire dog that looks like a tiger, but isn't.)

 

[Beth Pavell]

Pretty sure it is grammatically correct. Hm. Actually, Pyrocanis would be a better generic name since you could also put Houndour and Houndoom into the same genus. I think I'd prefer something like tigrioides or tigriacaea as "like a tiger" rather than "false tiger", but that's just me

 

[canisaries]

oh, mine's the opposite, i try to make em not existing genuses. partly because it's more fun that way.
anyway, thought about the ponyta family last night: Pyrochaetes equuleus, Pyrochaetes unicornis

houndour/houndoom definitely needs to have infernalis in the name somewhere.

also, i take that alola forms would be subspecies in this case?

 

[Beth Pavell]

Ok, let's see ...

Growlithe: Pyrocanis fidelis
Arcanine: Pyrocanis defensor
Houndour: Pyrocanis osseus
Houndoom: Pyrocanis infernalis

i take that alola forms would be subspecies in this case?

That would make most sense to me. Slapping alolensis on the end of the binomial would do the trick, as in Vulpes ultrix alolensis

 

[Beth Pavell]

I'm playing around with a few ideas for Lapras. I've got Plesiosaurus pacifici as the best of the crop at the moment, but I'm debating whether to change the genus. Part of me wants to put it in Cryptocleidus, part of me wants to keep it in the [Order] Plesiosauria but with an invented genus, to reflect millions of years of evolution

 

[Natu? Natu!]

Linnean names can change (in fact, I think that he changed a few names himself in the different editions of Systema Naturae and Species Plantarum). Nowadays that typically happens when molecular data indicates that organisms' evolutionary relationship to each other is different than what has been thought previously. The clearest example that I can think of is what happened to cone snails who previously all belonged to the genus conus, but now is divided into a huge number of different genera, with members of the family turridae moving back and forth.

 

[Ereshkigal]

The brontosaurus is back.

Would Kingdom-Phylum-Clade be Animalia Chordata Pokemonia?

 

[Beth Pavell]

Depends on how different pokémon are to other life forms. It would probably make most sense to place them as their own Kingdom and blame all the similarities on convergent evolution. Or ... well, given how life is quite capable of inventing remarkable characteristics multiple times, you could just blame pokémon characteristics on convergent evolution as well.

Anyway, now I think about it many pokémon appear to be invertebrates

 

[canisaries]

Would Kingdom-Phylum-Clade be Animalia Chordata Pokemonia?

Nah, there are plenty of non-chordate Pokemon, not to mention plant/fungus-based ones. I'd say Pokemon would be its own kingdom since all mon appear to be eukaryotic. Pokerus would exist outside that, maybe.