tag:news.mongabay.com,2005:/xml/sao_tome and principe1 2010-08-15T15:25:18Z tag:news.mongabay.com,2005:Article/6577 2010-08-04T23:17:00Z 2010-08-15T15:25:18Z <table align="left"><tr><td><img src="http://photos.mongabay.com/j/Abicarinata.thumb.jpg " align="left"/></td></tr></table>All species known to science are granted a Latin name. While this naming system is beneficent to researchers, Latin names—sad to say—don't really capture the public's attention anymore. Fortunately most species also have common names—the red fox, the pileated woodpecker, the Asian elephant, and so on. Some of these names even end up being quite wonderful: like the dusky dolphin (love the alliteration), the strawberry poison dart frog (points for creativity), the blobfish (if you see a photo you'll know why), and my all-time favorite: the goliath bird-eating spider. Although this name is slightly redundant (any spider that eats birds is goliath), I wouldn't change it for anything. However, some species, especially those less 'charismatic' ones, never get beyond their Latin name. Such is the fate of a giant forest snail known to researchers as <i>Archachatina bicarinata</i> and to the rest of us as...well nameless. But this begs a question: how do we save a species if we don't even name it? Jeremy Hance