Apr 10, 2009

Where's the Justice?

Juliet showed typical teenage foolishness when she asked what was in a name. Names are important. My wife and I deliberated for quite some time over the naming of our children. Scientists are compelled to name everything. Names have power.

So when you look at the creature below, what are some of the possible names you might think of? Morgan, who sent me this photo, thought of "brilliant pygmy lobster" and "magnificent violet lobster". Or you could go with "spiny jeweled lobster" or "resplendent lobster of joy". So many possibilities. But guess what this creature's common name is? Hairy Squat Lobster (lauriea siagiani).

As Morgan asks, where's the justice in that name?

Photo source: Sergey Parinov

9 comments:

Sabina E. said...

Disco Diamond! Haha the colors make me think of disco strobe lights... and it's beautiful, like a diamond? I'm lame!

Unknown said...

on the bright side, when you finally meet him he's so much prettier than his name, i guess?

Unknown said...

Poor guy... just got to remember, it's only a name!

Zanna said...

It should be named Fraggle Rock Lobster! (Say in Fred Schneider voice) It looks so like something Jim Henson would have made. :)

Yvonne Navarro said...

Should have called it the Purple Cactus Lobster. :)

Vanessa said...

Talk about being ripped off! My vote would have been for...
"resplendent lobster of joy"
I thought that was perfect!

Unknown said...

Now THAT's a lobster!

I know that 'squat lobster' is an actual subcategory of lobster so they may have been stuck with that part, but geeze, you could still come up with something better than 'hairy' to describe it!

bats :[ said...

Maybe those other names were already taken? Yes? No?
Okay, I got nothin'.

OTOH, "Squat Lobster" scans nicely into the B-52's "Rock Loster."

Raging Wombat said...

bats, if anything that another strike against the name.