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TulliusCicerotoday at 7:19 AM1 replyview on HN

> The species was first documented in the 1970s and, being fairly new to scientific observation, has yet to be scientifically described. Because of this, LPSO has no official scientific name.

Is that a joke? It takes over 50 years to come up with a scientific name for a species?


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Someonetoday at 7:36 AM

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2227516-octopuses-were-...:

“In the late 1960s, Aradio Rodaniche was diving off the coast of Nicaragua when he made the discovery that has tantalised cephalopod biologists ever since.

[…]

The discovery of an apparently social species was so implausible that few believed it and Rodaniche’s story passed into legend. He published a short account of the species in 1991, but hardly anyone had seen the animal and no one could confirm the report”

That takes account of (at least) a few decades.

I also think the issue isn’t coming up with a name but scientifically describing it. That (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Species_description) can take time.

Finally, the group of people interested in having a species description may not be very large; and the group willing and able to create one even smaller. Nowadays the money in biology is in biochemistry.

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