Today I came across this article showing lovely photographs of 15 different animals that have been named after food. The fried-egg jellyfish is spectacular! I also think the pineapple fish is wonderful. The garlic bread sea cucumber seems a bit of a stretch, though. 🙂

It reminded me of my mental list of fishes that are named after mammals: catfish, dogfish, redhorse, sheepshead, lion fish, hogsucker, sea horse, zebra danio. Some of these I’ve illustrated, including this redhorse and this seahorse:

Of all my fish illustrations in the book, this Shorthead redhorse is one of my favorite.

Shorthead redhorse © Emily S. Damstra

1/25 OZ Pure Gold Coin - Seahorse - designed by Emily S. Damstra

1/25 OZ Pure Gold Coin – Seahorse – designed by Emily S. Damstra

Then it occurred to me that somewhere on the internet, surely someone has posted a more comprehensive list. I immediately found this Wikipedia page listing not only fishes that are named after mammals, but fishes that are named after reptiles, amphibians, birds, mythical animals, invertebrates, other fishes, and more! It does not include a list of fishes that are named after plants or foods; but I bet there are others besides the aforementioned pineapple fish.

I decided to search for a list of mammals named after fishes….but no luck. Anyone know of any?

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