What's A Screaming Hairy Armadillo? How Animals Get Their Names

<p>Why are whale sharks called whale sharks? Why are guinea pigs called pigs if they're not pigs? Why are eagles called bald eagles if they're not bald? You also ask us lots of questions about why and how animals got their names. So today we're going to introduce you to the concept of taxonomy, or how animals are categorized, and we'll also talk about the difference between scientific and common names. We'll learn about the reasoning behind the names of daddy long legs, killer whales, fox snakes, German shepherds and more! Our guests are Steve and Matt Murrie, authors of <em>The Screaming Hairy Armadillo, and 76 Other Animals With Weird Wild Names</em>.</p> <p><strong>Download our learning guides: <a href="https://www.vpr.org/sites/vpr/files/202101/what_s_a_screaming_hairy_armadillo_how_animals_get_their_names.pdf" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">PDF</a> | <a href="https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1WxMYH3oQVm1-421xLXidJwujf3b4BKmsx-y5zw_fAHo/copy" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Google Slide</a> | <a href="https://www.vpr.org/sites/vpr/files/202101/ButWhyKids-144-Taxonomy-TRANSCRIPT.pdf" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Transcript</a></strong></p> <p>There are some animals whose names don't really seem accurate-like daddy long legs...which certainly aren't all daddies! Or bald eagles that very clearly have plenty of feathers on their heads. Or guinea pigs, which aren't actually pigs!<br> <br> And then there are animals with awesomely silly names. Have you ever heard of the umbrella bird? How about the sparklemuffin peacock spider!  Or the monkeyface prickleback, the sarcastic fringehead, and the white-bellied go-away bird!<br> <br> How do animals get their names? Well, there are two types of animal names: Scientific names and common names.<br> <br> Scientific names are used as a way to categorize all living things, so even if you don't know a lot about an animal, you can learn a lot about them by knowing their scientific name. There are eight different levels that living things get grouped into: domain, kingd