The Magnificent Name Game

Part of the fun of studying tropical fish in the Pacific is considering some of the outlandish names they've been given. In what appears to be a game of taxonomic oneupmanship, no extravagant adjective gets left behind. You saw a ghost pipefish? Well, I saw an ornate ghost pipefish! My giant frogfish is bigger than your ocellated frogfish. A robust ghost pipefish (the size and shape of a blade of grass) trumps a slender pipefish. And this list goes on, from the gorgeous shrimp goby to the splendid hawkfish. The next species discovered will probably be called something like the hyperbolic humphead.

-- Larry Clinton