by Ranger Jim Serpa

Our hard working camphost Stan Hart came up to me the other day and asked "Jim, what did you say the name of the new fish in the tide pool was?" I told him " It's called a convictfish."

"Are you sure?" Stan replied. "I looked it up, and I think it's a painted greenling," he went on. I said "You're right, but so am I." To clarify the confusion, I explained "Oxylebius pictus or, as many call it, the painted greenling, is also known as the convictfish."

So goes the dilemma...to use or not to use Latin names. It has been my experience that when you are talking about animals, or plants for that matter, if you start spouting Latin names, the average person's eyes glaze over. That teachable moment we so often talk about flies right out the window. Personally, I kind of like the Latin names. But that might be because they were forced on me during my years in the biology and zoology departments in college. One thing is for sure…there is only one Oxylebius pictus.

If you will bear with me and let me explain about those tongue-turning names, maybe I can convince you, as well, to give them a chance. This isn't something that just came down the pike in recent times. Many years ago people were having difficulty with names for the same animal or plant in different localities, especially in different countries. Then along came Swedish scientist Carl Von Linne in 1753 whose idea it was to use what he called the binomial nomenclature system. In a nutshell, each organism is given a series of names ending with a genus name and a species name. Both names make up the one true name for the animal. Every single animal or plant is different. Most scientists spoke Latin then so they used descriptive Latin names to help scientists identify each. Can you imagine naming every known plant and animal? It took awhile and Linne compiled two books on the subject. All of this without the use of a personal computer. Amazing!

Oxylebius pictus literally means "sharp greenling" and refers to the snout, which is elongated. This helps distinguish it from its cousin the kelp greenling, which has a blunt snout. Other descriptive Latin names would include Scorpaena guttata, which is our local scorpionfish. Most fisherman call this a sculpin. It is, in fact, not a sculpin at all. If you look closely at the Latin name it will tell you so. Scorpaena means scorpion and refers to those nasty spines on the fish that can inject venom into the not so careful. The species name guttata means speckled, which describes its coloration. Or how about my favorite, Gymnothorax mordax, the California moray (eel). Gymnothorax means bare chest, referring to the moray's lack of scales and mordax means prone to bite. In this regard not all the Latin names are accurate, because we know now the moray is not an aggressive fish at all.

Some names refer to the person who discovered the animal or plant. An example would be Embiotica jacksoni, which is our little black perch. While the Genus name Embiotica means offspring living within, the species name jacksoni merely refers to the scientist, a Mr. Jackson, who discovered that the perch gave live birth.

Here's a short list of some of the animals in our Visitor Center and their Latin names: Treefish – Sebastes serriceps – Sebastes means magnificent in Greek while serriceps means "saw head" referring to its large head spines. Garibaldi – Hypsypops rubicunda – Hypsypops comes from three Greek words meaning, high below the eye, referring to the wide distance from the front of the head to the eye; and rubucunda is red in Latin. California Halibut – Paralichthys californicus – Paralichthys is Greek for parallel fish, probably referring to the fact that the fish lies parallel to the bottom and californicus, obviously refers to our Golden State. Leopard Shark – Triakis semifasciata – Triakis is Greek for three pointed, referring to this shark's three pointed teeth, while semifasciata means half-banded, describing the distinctive markings found on the shark. Mako Shark – Isurus oxyrinchus – Isurus is Greek for equal tail referring to its homocircular caudal fin and oxyrinchus is Greek for sharp snout, which this shark certainly does have. Swell Shark – Cephalloscylium ventriosum – Cephallosylium means head shark in Greek. This is certainly a reference to the shark's broad head. The second name, ventriosum, means large belly in Latin, referring to this cute little guy's ability to inflate himself.