The common names of fish are simply the normal, everyday names used to identify fish species. Cod, whiting, plaice, flounder, conger eel and bass are all examples of the common names of fish species which are found around the UK. While the common names of species are perfectly adequate for anglers to use to identify fish the vast majority of the time, scientific names are used when it is necessary to precisely identify species of fish.
History and Development
The system of scientific naming began with the Swedish scientist Carl Linnaeus (1707-1778). Realising that common names were not precise enough to list the multitude of animal and plant species on planet earth he made it his life’s work to develop a system which would allow all of the world’s animal species to be accurately recorded and charted.
He developed a hierarchical system whereby each organism was given a binominal (two-part) scientific name, also referred to as the Latin name. This is unique to each animal, meaning that once a species has been given a scientific name no other species can have the same name. This allows scientists to use the scientific name to describe a species without misunderstanding or confusing it with others. The International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN) was established in 1895 to oversee and formalise the scientific naming of animals.
How does the Scientific Naming System Work?
The first part of the name consists of the genus to which the species belongs, while the second part is specific to that species. For example coalfish and pollock both belong to the pollachius genus, so both have this as the first part of their scientific name. However, the second part of their scientific name is unique, allowing them to be individually identified.
Scientific names are not necessarily fixed and may change if new information and discoveries about species come to light. Indeed, it is a founding principle of the ICZN that previous editions of the code are superseded when a new edition is published. For example, it was believed that there was a single species of skate present in British waters – the common skate which had the scientific name Dipturus batis. However, in 2009 scientific analysis of skates established that there were genetic differences between common skates. What was believed to be a single species was in fact two separate species, the flapper skate (Dipturus flossada) and the blue skate (Dipturus intermedia). This meant that the previously correct scientific name Dipturus batis was now unaccepted and is no longer used.
Similarly, blow lugworm and black lugworm were once thought to be a single species which had the scientific name Arenicola marina. Anglers repeatedly put forward evidence that blow lugworm and black lugworm were so different that they must be two separate species, and in 1993 the scientific community finally agreed. The scientific name Arenicola marina was retained for blow lugworm and black lugworm was given the scientific name of Arenicola defodiens.
Scientific Names and Fish
Many anglers will happily fish for their entire lives only using the common names of species and never need to worry about the scientific name of the species they are catching. But the examples below show how complicated it can be to identify fish species, and how confusing using common names can be. For example:
- The species often known as Atlantic wolffish (Anarhichas lupus) has many names across the UK. It is known as wolf eel, sea wolf, sea cat, devil fish, woof fish, catfish and Atlantic catfish.
- Similarly, the species known as coalfish (Pollachius virens) around much of England is known as saithe in Scotland, whereas pollock (Pollachius pollachius) are sometimes called lythe in Scotland.
- The species known as lesser-spotted dogfish (Scyliorhinus canicula) in the UK is known as the small-spotted catshark in the United States of America.
- Angel shark (Squatina squatina) is sometimes called monkfish, causing confusion with true monkfish (Lophius piscatorius).
- Referring to a fish as cod is inaccurate as there are three separate species of cod: Atlantic cod, Pacific cod (Gadus Macrocephalus) and Greenland cod (Gadus Ogac), although only Atlantic cod are found in British waters.
When scientific names are used much of the confusion which comes from using common names, nicknames and regional terms for fish species can be avoided.
Famous People and Scientific Names
While the first part of a scientific name is derived from the genus the animal belongs to it is up to the scientist who discovered the animal to come up with the unique specific name. For example, the slickhead species of fish discovered by Spencer Fullerton Baird was given the scientific name Alepocephalus bairdii, with the first part of the name being named after the genus of this species, and the second part being named after Baird himself.
Animals can also be named after famous people, often to honour someone who has made great achievements in a particular field. The British naturalist and broadcaster Sir David Attenborough has a number of different species named after him to honour his decades of work on nature and conservation. Materpiscis attenboroughii was a species of armoured fish which is now extinct and is named after him, as is a type of flowering tree (Blakea attenboroughii), a species of goblin spider (Prethopalpus Attenboroughi), a critically-endangered type of insect-eating plant (Nepenthes attenboroughii) and a genus of dinosaur (Attenborosaurus). Other famous people with animal species named after them include Prince Charles (Hyloscirtus princecharlesi – a species of frog), Aronold Arnold Schwarzenegger (Agra schwarzeneggeri – a species of carabid beetle) and John Cleese (Avahi cleesei – a species of lemur). Some species are named as a joke, such as Preseucoela imallshookupis, a species of gallfly named after the Elvis Presley song I’m All Shook Up. Other scientific names have become controversial. In 1933 a species of beetle was given the scientific name Anophthalmus hitleri after Adolf Hitler, who had just become Chancellor of Germany. Despite calls for the species to be renamed the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature has stated that the scientific names of species are not changed on the ground that they may cause offence.