Etymologies of Wee Beasties Trivia Quiz

Answer: Insecta

"Insect" comes from the Latin "insectum", meaning "cut into sections". This enormous group of organisms is very diverse - its members vary in size from the 1 mm long fairyfly to some stick insects which can reach over 36 cm long. The range of adaptations evolved by insects is truly stunning and is often overlooked on account of their size.

Some insects such as the bombardier beetle can fire boiling and caustic liquid at attackers, and some species of wasps, ants and butterflies employ brain-control techniques.

Answer: Giant panda

Like many animals, the scientific name of the giant panda is suggestive of some of its physical characteristics. The prefixes "leuc-" and "melan-" usually denote white and black respectively (derivations include "Lucifer" ("light-bringer") and melanocytes ("black cells").

The name "Ailuropoda" means "cat foot" and refers to the cat-like paws of the giant panda. These controversial animals are amongst the most famous in the world and their image is synonymous with the effort to save endangered species.

Many have criticised the amount of money spent on panda conservation, however, which arguably detracts from the thousands of other species which become extinct every year.

Answer: The common fruit fly

Drosophila melanogaster is known as the common fruit fly and is characterised by its tiny grey body and red eyes. Interestingly, it was its eyes that sparked the fascination of using fruit flies as genetic study samples. In the lab run by geneticist Thomas Hunt Morgan, fruit flies had been used due to their rapid reproduction cycles and the large (and easily observable) chromosomes found in their salivary glands.

After a certain number of reproduction cycles, an unusual fly emerged. This fly had white rather than red eyes.

This was because of a mutated gene. This white-eyed fly was then bred with other flies, and subsequent studies identified the gene to be sex-linked, as almost all of the white-eyed individuals were male. Several other mutations were identified, and fruit flies helped make Morgan's lab the world centre of genetic research at the time.

Answer: European robin

The European robin is a small member of the thrush family that is often associated with Christmas-time. Though often simply called the robin, this animal is sometimes called the robin redbreast, despite the chest of the bird invariably being more of an orange colour.

Interestingly, this is not through mis-observation, but rather that a word for the colour orange did not exist until its namesake fruit was introduced to Europe in the 16th century.

Answer: Bats

The wing of a bat is a perfect example of convergent evolution. This means that the bat independently evolved a similar solution (the wing) to achieve flight as other animals (e.g. birds). Despite this external similarity to the wing of a bird, the anatomical appearance of the bat's wing betrays its mammalian membership.

Two of the other three answer options - the flying squirrel and the sugar glider - are also prime examples of this phenomenon. The sugar glider is a marsupial and evolved independently whilst isolated on the island of Australia. While the sugar glider may look like a close cousin of the flying squirrel, it is actually more closely related to the kangaroo.

Answer: Three-toed sloth

"Bradypus" is the Greek for "slow foot" and is a rather accurate description of the three-toed sloth. This genus includes four species - the pygmy, maned, pale-throated, and brown-throated three-toed sloths, all of which are found in Central and South America.

The sloth is admittedly bizarre, and belongs to the order Pilosa (meaning "hairy") which includes other such oddities as the giant anteater and the now extinct giant sloth genus known as Megatherium.

Answer: Stomach

Gastropoda literally means "stomach-foot". As well as the slugs and snails you may find in your garden, this class includes the fascinating family of cone snails. From these creatures, we can obtain several types of neurotoxin. While these toxins can cause us problems if we come across cone snails in the wild, they have been invaluable to our investigation into nerve transmission within animals.

For example, the mu-conotoxin inhibits potassium channels and was therefore used to determine how these proteins contribute to the transmission of nerve impulses.

Answer: Eurasian wren

The wren is a small bird, but one which is sometimes referred to as King of the Birds. This name comes from a tale which saw all birds fly as high as they could in order to try and gain this illustrious title. The mighty eagle looked like the outright winner, but the crafty wren had hidden in his plumage and jumped out to beat the exhausted eagle.

The Eurasian wren (like other wrens) tends to enter rock crevices for food or to roost. It is one of many animals with the same name for its genus and its species. More common examples of such repetitively-named animals include the Western gorilla (Gorilla gorilla) and the common buzzard (Buteo buteo).

Answer: The thorny devil

The thorny devil is an Australian lizard which possesses sharp spines all over its body. The most prominent spines are two that are located above the eyes and which are reminiscent of the Dark Lord. Another spiny hump found on the back of the thorny devil's neck is believed to function as a false head.

When encountering an attacker, the thorny devil may dip its (real) head and therefore potentially avoid a fatal blow.

Answer: There is no class to which all fish belong

It may seem a strange thing to say, but there is, biologically, no such thing as a fish. Many of the fish you think of, from the ones you eat to the ones found in your aquarium belong to the class Actinopterygii which is a large class of bony fishes (known as Osteichthyes).

This means that unlike the other four major vertebrate groups - mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians - there is no distinguishing characteristic that can be used to define all fish which does not also include animals that are not fish.

This is in comparison to mammals, all of which suckle their young, and birds, which possess feathers.