The bird that caused Gannet to change its scientific name
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Gannet was one of the first scientific names I learned. It was Sula bassana translating as great white bird of the Bass Rock, one of their famous breeding colonies. Later the Boobies were placed in the same genus Sula, and Boobies were so named because of their apparent stupidity. Sailors could catch them with a loop of rope and a fish for bait, from which arose the term booby trap. DNA studies have revealed that the Boobies are a separate group from the similar Gannets, so one of them had to be placed in a new genus. Normally the first named species would keep the genus, and this would be Gannets. However, the Red-footed Booby was named Sula sula. This is known as a tautonym, where generic and specific names are the same, and which incidentally is forbidden in plants under the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature. Normally the earliest name would prevail (which would be Sula bassana), but there is an exception when an otherwise valid name would "disturb stability or universality or cause confusion" . Such was deemed to be the case with Red-footed Booby (Sula sula). So the boobies kept Sula, and the poor old Gannets were placed in the genus Morus, which translates as stupid. So now the Gannet
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