- Genus name: Rattus
- Species name: rattus
- Subspecies name: rattus
You’d actually say it as R. rattus rattus or Rattus r. rattus.
Also, the scientific name of the Western lowland gorilla is gorilla gorilla gorilla. You’d say it as G. g. gorilla.
The OG
The GGG
Gorilla Gorilla Allin?
Hey that’s Cancer Mouse recoloured!
Ratatatata
Rattus R. Rattus has some real Chuck E. Cheese energy.
Rattus R. Rattus is his well-to-do British uncle.
Crucially, I forgot to note the taxonomist who described it:
Saying its name trice is a summoning chant, which may have worked a bit too well. You should check your house just in case.
Once. Twice. Three times a rattus.
If this isn’t yet a death metal song, it should be.
I had Fire Salamanders for a long time and their scientific name was Salamandra salamandra salamandra (or S. s. salamandra)
The rat so nice they named it thrice!
Nevil Maskelyne would appreciate this
Gorilla gorilla gorilla as well
Rattus Norvegus (common brown rat) was named by that Norwegian Linnaeus guy who came up with the Latin naming scheme for species. They are not particularly Norwegian actually.
How dare you say he’s Norwegian! Those mountain trolls could never spawn someone of such greatness! Next you’ll tell me Anders Celsius was Danish, pwah.
Sweden had some good ones. Schele is my favourite. If you are a chemist tasting stuff to identify properties is a bad idea.
As a Norwegian myself I like Kristian Birkeland who in order to fund his aurora borealis research invented the Birkeland-Eyde process of fixing nitrogen from the air. Thereby enabeling the mass production of fertilizer
If you are a chemist tasting stuff to identify properties is a bad idea.
I was appalled, reading through these:
1879:
“How did I discover saccharine?” he said. "Well, it was partly by accident and partly by study. I had worked a long time upon the compound radicals and a substitution products of coal tar, and had made a number of scientific discoveries that are, as far as I know, of no commercial value. One evening I was so interested in my laboratory that I forgot about supper until quite late, and then rushed off for a meal without stopping to wash my hands. I sat down, broke a piece of bread, and put it to my lips. It tasted unspeakably sweet. I did not ask why it was so, probably because I thought it was some cake or sweetmeat. I rinsed my mouth with water, and dried my mustached with my napkin, when, to my surprise, the napkin tasted sweeter than the bread. Then I was puzzled. I again raised my goblet, and, as fortune would have it, applied my mouth where my fingers had touched it before. The water seemed sirup. It flashed upon me that I was the cause of the singular universal sweetness, and I accordingly tasted the end of my thumb, and found that it surpassed any confectionary I had ever eaten. I saw the whole thing at a glance. I had discovered or made some coal tar substance which out-sugared sugar. I dropped my dinner and ran back to the laboratory. There, in my excitement, I tasted the contents of every beaker and evaporating dish on the table. Luckily for me, none contained any corrosive or poisonous liquid.
“One of them contained an impure solution of saccharine…”
1965:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspartame#History
Aspartame was discovered by accident[60] in December 1965[61] by James M. Schlatter, a chemist working for G.D. Searle & Company in Skokie, Illinois. Schlatter had synthesized aspartame as an intermediate step in generating a tetrapeptide of the hormone gastrin, for use in assessing an anti-ulcer drug candidate.[60] He discovered its sweet taste when he licked his finger, which had become contaminated with aspartame, to lift up a piece of paper.[12][62]
1967:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acesulfame_potassium#Discovery
Acesulfame potassium was developed after the accidental discovery of a similar compound (5,6-dimethyl-1,2,3-oxathiazin-4(3H)-one 2,2-dioxide) in 1967 by Karl Clauss and Harald Jensen at Hoechst AG.[16][17] After some of the chemical powder accidentally spilled onto his sweater, Clauss licked his finger to wipe the spots away, which led him to notice its intensely sweet taste.[18][19]
1975:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sucralose
Sucralose was discovered in 1975 by scientists from Tate & Lyle, working with researchers Leslie Hough and Shashikant Phadnis at Queen Elizabeth College (now part of King’s College London).[21] While researching novel uses of sucrose and its synthetic derivatives, mixing sulfuryl chloride with sugar, Phadnis was told to “test” a chlorinated sugar compound. According to an anecdotal account, Phadnis thought Hough asked him to “taste” it, so he did and found the compound to be exceptionally sweet.[22][23]
Offhand I think that be the case for every/most type species.
Not nearly, actually! Exact tautonyms are pretty uncommon, all things considered. Trinomial tautonyms even less so, like Bison bison bison. I don’t think I can give you actual data, but I can say knowing a fair bit of marine taxonomy that it’s the exception there.
Edit: It’s also prohibited in botany and, I learned today, used to be prohibited for bacteria.
Edit 2: Wikipedia maintains an incomplete list, incidentally.
Edit 3: Forgot to mention I was specifically talking about binomial/trinomial tautonyms. Near-tautonyms are very common as you go up toward the middle of the tree of life, e.g. a family, superfamily, and order sharing basically the same name, just with a different prescribed suffix.
Mus musculus was the one I was thinking of. The -culus is just the diminutive suffix.
Does Homo Sapiens Sapiens count here?
Yeah, it’s a tautonym too. H. sapiens sapiens is the type subspecies for species H. sapiens.
Rat in a dollhouse always cheers me up: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bYbLv20Q0I
