Highlander
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- Feb 12, 2012
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Scientists stuck their necks out to officially name gigantea. It has been "a very charged issue," says Ellinor Michel, executive secretary of the International Commission of Zoological Nomenclature, or ICZN.
"Scientists are pretty good at saying that the other person is an idiot."
The tortoise spat is one of about 60 cases presented each year to the ICZN, a little-known group that functions as the world's arbiter for animals' scientific names. Acrimonious battles have raged for years over the correct monikers for certain shrimp, snails, fruit flies, butterflies and dinosaurs.
It is a big job: every year, researchers identify about 20,000 new animal species. Each must be given a scientifically valid name, usually in Latin or in Greek, that will endure. Otherwise, the animal kingdom might fall into chaos. The task is likely to become even tougher: due to drastic budget cuts, the ICZN's own future existence is now severely threatened.
When enacting laws for species conservation, for example, "you have to know what animal you're talking about or you're going to be in trouble," says David Attenborough, the British naturalist. He once spent several days among the Aldabra tortoises. "There are a great number of these extraordinary creatures lumbering around the place," he recalls, adding that one of them stole his shoes from outside the tent.
The world's roughly 1.4 million known animal species typically go by two or more names in scientific literaturea source of confusion to many. Several have 20 names.