EVOLUTION, NAMES, AND CLASSIFICATION 73 



not forget that the human Hfe is too short to see evolution in action and that 

 the human animal has been on earth only one thousandth of the time that life 

 has existed here. The age we live in is, in fact, an extraordinarily dramatic 

 one typified by the harsh climatic conditions of an ice age, by fluctuating 

 currents and water levels of the sea, and by the geologic upheaval of whole 

 great mountain ranges such as the Pacific Coast range. But our lives are too 

 short for us to notice most of these changes. 



Evolution has no goal, but it does have method and a reason. The necessity 

 of life to adapt to an ever-changing and complex environment is its reason. 

 The sensitive man will contemplate and study these things as he swims among 

 the wonders of the sea that lie about him. 



NAMES 



It is of utmost practical necessity that names be given to the species of marine 

 life about us. For common everyday purposes, common everyday names are 

 used. These are sometimes adequate. Mostly they are not. When you eat a 

 sardine, do you spread a small herring or a pilchard or a Spanish sardine on 

 your bread? These are three different fishes, all -called "sardine." Different 

 languages have different words for the same fish; for example, "ronco" (Spanish) 

 and "grunt." "Langouste" (French), "crayfish," and "spiny lobster" are all names 

 referring to the same animal. Examples are virtually endless of the confusion, 

 multiplicity, and overlap of common names that are given to marine animals 

 and plants. 



Common names are given by just about every method imaginable. The 

 margate fish was named for the sailors from the English port of Margate. The 

 yellow grunt was named for its color. The pompano was named for its shape. 

 Gill's mojarra was named after a man. No one knows how or why the ridley 

 turtle got its name. 



Obviously, some way had to be found out of this imbroglio of terms. In the 

 mid-eighteenth century, a Swedish scientist named Linnaeus founded the system 

 of scientific nomenclature which we use today. There is no need to be con- 

 founded or overimpressed with scientific names. They are only names, after all, 

 which may be a little foreign to most of us but which offer us some stability in 

 the confusion of names, especially when we are not familiar with the local 

 terminology. 



CLASSIFICATION 



Linnaeus's system for naming animals is built around binomial nomenclature. 

 That is, every species is given two names, a first, capitalized, generic name, and 

 a second, uncapitalized, species name. The genus of the spotted moray is 

 Gyninothorax; the species is moringa. The complete name is Gymnothorax 

 moringa. The subspecies name, if any, adds a third name. 



The Linnaean system was originated in a time before the acceptance of the 

 validity of evolution. Linnaeus himself was a special creationist. Nowadays his 

 system has been adapted into an evolutionary scheme and supposedly reflects 

 the tree of evolution as it is revealed to us by the study of fossils. But since the 



