"Modern [scientific] taxonomy holds that names *designate* but need not meaningfully *describe*.
Article 18 of the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature’s code states that a species can be named 'albus', even if it is not, in fact, white; it seems to follow that humans can be called sapiens, even though, on the whole, we are not."
Hunter Dukes, 2024
#ecology #homosapiens #taxonomy #linneaus #zoology #quote #quotes #anthropocene


