Image: A grin without a cat. Cheshire Cat, from Alice in Wonderland, illustration by John Tenniel, public domain.
“Well! I’ve often seen a cat without a grin,” thought Alice “but a grin without a cat! It’s the most curious thing I ever saw in my life!” (Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland)
As you’ve probably read here on Scientist Sees Squirrel, I’m writing a new book. It’s about the Latin names of plants and animals (and I promise, it’s a lot more interesting than it sounds). And in thinking and writing about naming, I’ve come to realize that the way we do biological nomenclature leads to the production of some truly bizarre entities: names without things. Let me explain.
Things without names are a perfectly normal category – even if individual instances of the category tend to be short-lived, because we humans really, really like to name things*. Continue reading