Taxonomic Term Confusion: Difference between revisions

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* Use of ''family'' when ''order'' ("the owl family") or ''genus'' ("the horse family") would be more accurate.

* Describing a newly discovered and radically unusual life form as "a completely new order of life": ''Kingdom'' or ''phylum'' or even ''domain'' would probably be more accurate. ''New orders are created all the time'', sometimes on the whims of the researchers. (It's not just Tropers who have to deal with [[Lumper vs. Splitter]] arguments!)

* Using the word "phylum" interchangeably with "taxon" because it sounds all science-y and no one knows what "taxon" means. (And no, [[Animorphs ~~(Literature)~~|"giant wormlike alien with an insatiable hunger"]] is spelled with a [[Double X]].) The reason for this odd usage may be historical: phylum ''was'' a synonym of "taxon" until Ernst Haeckel (who abolished polyphyletic groups from scientific classification) decided that a new rank was needed between kingdom and class.

* Using the word "phylum" interchangeably with "taxon" because it sounds all science-y and no one knows what "taxon" means. (And no, [[Animorphs|"giant wormlike alien with an insatiable hunger"]] is spelled with a [[Double X]].) The reason for this odd usage may be historical: phylum ''was'' a synonym of "taxon" until Ernst Haeckel (who abolished polyphyletic groups from scientific classification) decided that a new rank was needed between kingdom and class.

* Pretty much every instance where lifeforms evolved independent of Earth are referred to as [[Call a Smeerp A Rabbit|''mammals'', ''birds'', etc.]] Bonus points if the author just can't seem to understand that it's not a rule of the universe that lactation and fur go together (or feathers and eggs, etc.).

* Pretty much every instance where lifeforms evolved independent of Earth are referred to as [[Call a Smeerp a Rabbit|''mammals'', ''birds'', etc.]] Bonus points if the author just can't seem to understand that it's not a rule of the universe that lactation and fur go together (or feathers and eggs, etc.).

** It's even proven here on earth that nature sometimes bends its own rules with the [[Land Down Under|echidna and platypus,]] both species of mammal that fall into the monotreme order, meaning that they lay eggs.

* Calling apes "monkeys". Ignoring that the order of primates includes ''humans.''

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* A "lizard" and "reptile" are not interchangeable words, the latter includes snakes, crocodilians, turtles, and possibly birds. "Lizard," on the other hand, contains creatures as diverse as geckos, iguanas, chameleons, and monitor lizards (a category that includes the Komodo Dragon).

** You're going to get very odd looks calling birds "reptiles" around any but the most hardcore phylogeneticist.

* ''[[Tyrannosaurus Rex~~|Tyrannosaurus rex~~]]'' is always spelled T-Rex in most media, despite the proper way to abbreviate it is ''T. rex''.

* ''[[Tyrannosaurus Rex]]'' is always spelled T-Rex in most media, despite the proper way to abbreviate it is ''T. rex''.

** Heck, messing up the format of genus and species is so common, it deserves a trope of its own. For the record, the genus (''Tyrannosaurus'') is capitalized, the specific name (''rex'') is not, and you always underline/italicize it.

* For the record, dinosaurs are NOT lizards. They are both ''reptiles'', if one grants that reptile is actually a valid classification, but they are not the same thing. To put things in perspective, it would be like calling a human a "mouse" since both are mammals. Also, <s>recent</s> overwhelming long-overlooked evidence indicates that dinosaurs are more closely related to birds than lizards; in fact, as any paleontologist will do their best to get into your head, BIRDS ARE DINOSAURS.[[hottip:*: Well, {{[http|//pterosaurnet.blogspot.com/2011/02/symplesiomorphy.html almost any], but those that disagree are not to be believed.}} Therefore, it would be more accurate to call a ''Tyrannosaurus'' an "overgrown chicken" rather than a "big lizard'.

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* Just as a reminder: While many turtles ''are'' '''amphibious''', ''none'' of them are '''amphibians'''. Conversely, despite having a similar body shape to lizards, newts and other salamanders ''are not'' lizards or reptiles at all, but amphibians.

* Using "evergreen" and "conifer" as synonyms. Some conifers are deciduous trees; for instance, [[Monty Python's Flying Circus|No. 1: the larch.]] [[Running Gag|The larch.]] [[Overly Long Gag|The LARCH.]] In warmer climates, many broad-leafed trees are evergreen.

* Using "rodent" to refer to any small mammal. Forgivable when applied to rabbits, which are in order Lagomorpha, closely related to Rodentia (together they form the clade Glires<ref>Which forms the clade Euarchontoglires with the Euarchonta, which includes humans. [[The More You Know]]!</ref>), and have gnawing teeth of their own...not as forgivable when applied to, say, weasels (which are Carnivorans) or bats (Chiroptera). Despite that in many European languages the word for bat is a compound of the word for mouse, bats aren't rodents, as Batman says in ''[[~~Batman Forever (Film)|~~Batman Forever]]''. (Of course, [[Calvin and Hobbes|bats aren't bugs]] either.)

* Using "rodent" to refer to any small mammal. Forgivable when applied to rabbits, which are in order Lagomorpha, closely related to Rodentia (together they form the clade Glires<ref>Which forms the clade Euarchontoglires with the Euarchonta, which includes humans. [[The More You Know]]!</ref>), and have gnawing teeth of their own...not as forgivable when applied to, say, weasels (which are Carnivorans) or bats (Chiroptera). Despite that in many European languages the word for bat is a compound of the word for mouse, bats aren't rodents, as Batman says in ''[[Batman Forever]]''. (Of course, [[Calvin and Hobbes|bats aren't bugs]] either.)

** In the same vein, trying to go technical and call every small non-rodent mammal an "insectivore" is also equally wrong. Genetic tests have proven said order was made up of vastly different animals: while hedgehogs, moles and true shrews are a real group, tenrecs, for example, are relatives of ELEPHANTS.

** So...the elephants were scared of tenrecs because they might get that small?

* The word "bug" is commonly applied to any arthropod and in some cases to any invertebrate at all, but it's actually a specific term for a single group of insects, just like the word "beetle" or "moth". Bugs are only insects of the order Hemiptera.

** Having said that, good luck getting people to start calling them "arthropods." It just doesn't roll off the tongue the way "bug" does.

* A very common "mistake" is calling everything in media that one can ride a horse. This gets especially glaring when people use it on creatures that look nothing like horses, for example [[Super Mario Bros|Yoshi]] is often called one.

* A very common "mistake" is calling everything in media that one can ride a horse. This gets especially glaring when people use it on creatures that look nothing like horses, for example [[Super Mario Bros.|Yoshi]] is often called one.

** Even further anything that flies is often called a bird and any bird is referred to as a chicken.

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* In ''[[The Horror of Party Beach]]'', a doctor explains that the monster is actually a dead human whose organs were invaded by aquatic plants before they had the chance to decompose, and calls the result "a giant protozoa." Protozoa are single-celled lifeforms, being neither plants nor animals. "Protozoan" is the word for describing one in the singular.

* ''[[The Faculty]]'' contains this line: "We discovered a new phylum in biology class today; maybe even a new species." This makes no sense, because something in a new phylum would have to be in a new species. Probably the actor accidentally switched "species" and "phylum" around from the scripted line, and nobody caught the mistake.

* The ''ikran'' in ''[[Avatar (~~Film~~)|Avatar]]'' apparently have the scientific name ''Pterodactylus giganteus''. No. This is wrong. Being members of the genus ''Pterodactylus'' would mean that they're small pterosaurs from Earth's Late Jurassic period. For those not in the know, it's actually a four-winged dragon-like beast from a moon in the Alpha Centauri system. So yeah...

* The ''ikran'' in ''[[Avatar (film)|Avatar]]'' apparently have the scientific name ''Pterodactylus giganteus''. No. This is wrong. Being members of the genus ''Pterodactylus'' would mean that they're small pterosaurs from Earth's Late Jurassic period. For those not in the know, it's actually a four-winged dragon-like beast from a moon in the Alpha Centauri system. So yeah...

** The Na'vi themselves are classified as ''Homo pandora'', which would mean that they are closely related to humans. As we know they evolved from some sort of alien lemur creature, and not hominids transported from Earth, this is wrong.

*** [[Epileptic Trees|Maybe they switched to a classification system based solely on homology to help classify alien life?]]

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* In ''[[Jurassic Park]]'', Alan Grant says that humans and dinosaurs are "two species separated by 65 million years." Granted, that line probably sounded great in the trailers, but you'd think a paleontologist would know better than to call dinosaurs a species.

* [[Finding Nemo|"Let's name the species of the open seaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!"]] The "species" mentioned in Mr. Ray's song are actually ''phyla''.

* In Disney's ''[[The Sword in ~~The Stone (Disney)|The Sword in The~~ Stone]]'', for Merlin and Mad Madame Mim's [[Wizard Duel]], the two spellcasters are only allowed to turn into animals, and not vegetables, minerals, or "nonexistant creatures like pink dragons and such." However, when the duel is over, Mim breaks one of her own rules by [[Loophole Abuse|turning into a dragon]], and Merlin defeats her by turning into a ''germ'', which is not even an animal at all!

* In Disney's ''[[The Sword in the Stone]]'', for Merlin and Mad Madame Mim's [[Wizard Duel]], the two spellcasters are only allowed to turn into animals, and not vegetables, minerals, or "nonexistant creatures like pink dragons and such." However, when the duel is over, Mim breaks one of her own rules by [[Loophole Abuse|turning into a dragon]], and Merlin defeats her by turning into a ''germ'', which is not even an animal at all!

== [[Literature]] ==

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* Also recently [[Subverted Trope|subverted]] in ''[[Starcraft|Star Craft 2]]''. Whereas the previous game (and early [[Expanded Universe]] materials) capitalized species name as is often done in science fiction ([[Planetville|erroneously]]), ''[[Star Craft 2]]'' promotional materials and the new books ''all'' spell "protoss" and "zerg" with non-capitals. [[They Changed It, Now It Sucks|The fandom hasn't quite caught on yet]].

* Hidden object casual games regularly invoke this trope, as when clicking on a "seahorse" isn't registered as finding a "fish".

* Averted in the [[~~War Craft~~]] franchise, where across all media species names are almost always left uncapitalized. However, many, many fans do so anyway.

* Averted in the [[Warcraft]] franchise, where across all media species names are almost always left uncapitalized. However, many, many fans do so anyway.

== [[Western Animation]] ==

* [[Looney Tunes ~~(Animation)~~|Elmer Fudd]] calling [[Bugs Bunny]] a rodent.

* [[Looney Tunes|Elmer Fudd]] calling [[Bugs Bunny]] a rodent.

* An episode of ''[[~~The Angry Beavers (Animation)|~~The Angry Beavers]]'' does this, as well. Rabbits are lagomorphs, not rodents, though Rodentia and Lagomorpha are sister orders in the clade Glires. However, in the Elmer Fudd case at least, the mistake is perhaps forgivable. Indeed, taxon Lagomorpha ''was'' placed within Rodentia until at least early 1900's, making then-Rodentia equivalent to now-Glires, and Fudd was already depicted as a middle-aged man in 1940.

* An episode of ''[[The Angry Beavers]]'' does this, as well. Rabbits are lagomorphs, not rodents, though Rodentia and Lagomorpha are sister orders in the clade Glires. However, in the Elmer Fudd case at least, the mistake is perhaps forgivable. Indeed, taxon Lagomorpha ''was'' placed within Rodentia until at least early 1900's, making then-Rodentia equivalent to now-Glires, and Fudd was already depicted as a middle-aged man in 1940.

* ''[[~~Family Guy (Animation)|~~Family Guy]]'''s Meg Griffin calling a raccoon a rodent. They're actually members of the order Carnivora, close relatives of BEARS. Rodents and carnivores are both boreoeutherian placental mammals, but that's almost literally about as far as their taxonomic relationship extends. It's like saying we humans (which are primates) are related to horses (which are perissodactyls).

* ''[[Family Guy]]'''s Meg Griffin calling a raccoon a rodent. They're actually members of the order Carnivora, close relatives of BEARS. Rodents and carnivores are both boreoeutherian placental mammals, but that's almost literally about as far as their taxonomic relationship extends. It's like saying we humans (which are primates) are related to horses (which are perissodactyls).

** [[Life After People|Life After People: The Series]] did the same thing.

* On ''[[~~Futurama (Animation)|~~Futurama]]'', Fry came into possession of the last remaining can of anchovies on Earth, the species having gone extinct centuries ago. There is no such species as "anchovy", this being a catch-all term for some 140 species of small fishes.

* On ''[[Futurama]]'', Fry came into possession of the last remaining can of anchovies on Earth, the species having gone extinct centuries ago. There is no such species as "anchovy", this being a catch-all term for some 140 species of small fishes.

* ''[[~~Jackie Chan Adventures (Animation)|~~Jackie Chan Adventures]]'' had a weird one in which jackie and a crime boss refer to an octopus as a fish and respectively are corrected by Captain Black and a random mook by saying it is a '''multipod'''. What makes this a headscratcher is that the correction is more incorrect then the original statement because there is no taxon called multipod nor has one ever existed.

* ''[[Jackie Chan Adventures]]'' had a weird one in which jackie and a crime boss refer to an octopus as a fish and respectively are corrected by Captain Black and a random mook by saying it is a '''multipod'''. What makes this a headscratcher is that the correction is more incorrect then the original statement because there is no taxon called multipod nor has one ever existed.