History Main / TaxonomicTermConfusion

** "[[Recap/PhineasAndFerbWhatACroc What a Croc!]]" refers to crocodiles as lizards. Crocodilians are more closely related to dinosaurs and thus birds, and they are actually far away from lizards on the evolutionary branch.

* ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'' is often erroneously referred to as a rodent. Hedgehogs actually belong to the order Eulipotyphla, which indeed contains several ''other'' animals frequently mistaken for rodents (namely moles and shrews). Similarly to the ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' example (below in the Western Animation folder), hedgehogs and rodents are boreoeutherian mammals, and that's where they diverge: Eulipotyphla is in superorder Laurasiatheria (which contains animals like ungulates and bats), while Rodentia is in superorder Euarchontoglires (which contains animals like rabbits and primates).

* ''WesternAnimation/DinosaurTrain'' uses "species" when "genus" would be more appropriate.

* In ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy'', calling Rocket a "rodent" is one of his {{Berserk Button}}s. He's a raccoon, order Carnivora; rodents are order Rodentia.

* ''ComicBook/XMen'':
** The mutants are referred to as a species separate from humans, called ''Homo superior'', even though they can produce fertile offspring with humans. It would be more accurate to call them a new [[HumanSubspecies subspecies]] ("subspecies" being a fairly arbitrary and flexible term). This is partially solved in later comics where ComicBook/{{Magneto}}, and several others, refer to Mutants as "Homo sapiens superior" (compared to Homo sapiens sapiens). Although some writers forget this, ''Homo sapiens superior'' specifically refers to a human subspecies with a single, quantifiable characteristic that ''Homo sapiens sapiens'' lacks — the emission of a certain type of brainwave (this is how Cerebro distinguishes mutants from baseline humans). Superhuman powers or anatomical quirks are very common among mutants, but they are not a requirement.
** Every human, nay, every individual of any species born is almost certainly a mutant, several times over, by the actual definition of the term. A typical human may have dozens of alleles (that is, genetic variations) not present in either of its parents. These are all mutations. So using the term "mutant" isn't all that scientifically useful, either.
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** Iridescent Flint Beetles, Iridescent Glint Beetles and Doodlebugs are considered part of three distinct families, respectively the flint beetles, glint beetles and flint bugs. Despite this, they're also referred to as members of the same genus, ''Pilli'' (''P. envelopens'', ''P. auricus'' and ''P. flatularum'', respectively). Notably, however, the Japanese dub describes the Iridescent Flint Beetle and Doodlebug as being part of the same family. Taxonomically, this doesn't make any sense -- species are group into genuses and genuses into families, which means that all members of a genus must be part of the same family.

* ''Series/{{Fringe}}'': One episode features what looks like a cucumber-sized slug that crawls out of its victim's mouth, which the cast later identifies as an [[MegaMicrobes enlarged]] single-cell cold virus (which don't ''have'' cells, even a single one).

* ''Literature/{{Dracopedia}}'': The books don't use taxonomic terms precisely as they are meant to be used. Primarily, binomial names are used for both individual species and individual genuses -- in essence, each dragon family is referred to as ''Draco [genus name]'', and each individual species within it is then ''[genus name] [species name]''. For instance, great dragons as a whole are referred to as ''Draco dracorexus'', while the Welsh red, a specific species of great dragon, is ''Dracorexus idraigoxus''. This isn't how binomials work -- only genus, species and subspecies names are included in a species' formal taxonomic name, and anything above that would just be referred to as "[genus species], in family x, in order y", etc.

* ''Film/GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters'': Titans are all classified under the genus ''Titanus''. Titans represent everything from Godzilla (a reptile) to King Kong (a mammal) to Mothra (an insect). While this is already bad enough, what tips this into making taxonomists everywhere crying themselves to sleep are the following, particularly egregious missteps:

* ''Film/GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters'': Titans are all classified under the genus ''Titanus''. Besides the fact that this name is already used for a beetle (and hence cannot be reused), Titans represent everything from Godzilla (a reptile) to King Kong (a mammal) to Mothra (an insect).

* ''Literature/InCryptid'' includes a [[AllThereInTheManual field guide]] to many cryptid species on the author's website, but sometimes bends the rules of taxonomy (rather JustForFun{{egregious}}ly, since Creator/SeananMcGuire was a herpetologist before becoming a novelist).

** The animals are collectively referred to as "dinosaurs". While this makes sense in the base game, the ''Sea Monsters'' DLC includes nothosaurs, plesiosaurs, ichthyosaurs, crocodilians, turtle, and ''fish''.

** The animals are collectively referred to as "dinosaurs". While this made sense for the base game, the ''Sea Monsters'' DLC includes nothosaurs, plesiosaurs, ichthyosaurs, crocodilians, and ''fish''.

** The show treats "plankton" as if it were a species the character named Plankton belong to. The term "plankton" is not actually taxonomic at all, it refers to any oceanic organism that floats but cannot swim against the current. Given the show often [[ShownTheirWork shows its work]] about marine biology, and that Plankton [[https://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-82792771.html is actually]] a copepod ([[SeldomSeenSpecies a rather obscure species]]), this was probably done for simplicity's sake.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Parkasaurus}}'', the seven major groups of dinosaurs are called "families". The ''Sea Monsters'' DLC adds two more "families" -- aquatic and semi-aquatic -- which are more like broad descriptions. Also, all the animals are called "dinos", which none of the sea monsters are.

* ''WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants'' treats "plankton" as if it were a species the character named Plankton belong to. The term "plankton" is not actually taxonomic at all, it refers to any oceanic organism that floats but cannot swim against the current. Given the show often [[ShownTheirWork shows its work]] about marine biology, and that Plankton [[https://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-82792771.html is actually]] a copepod ([[SeldomSeenSpecies a rather obscure species]]), this was probably done for simplicity's sake.

* ''Series/DoctorWho'' has a species of reptilian humanoids, the Silurians, that are referred to sometimes as ''Homo reptilia''. The ''Homo'' genus is mammalian. Furthermore, reptiles hadn't even evolved by the Silurian era, making that part of the name rather baffling as well. (The Doctor once suggested that they should have been called "Eocenes" after another geological period they didn't come from.)

** ''WesternAnimation/{{Zootopia}}'': At a few points, characters refer to the "predator family". Even going by the in-universe definition of "predator" (that is, a sapient mammal species that eats other sapient mammals), that's still wildly biologically inaccurate (one could say that they were thinking of Carnivora, but that's an ''order'', it contains several types of animals that don't eat mammals (and some don't even normally eat animals, period), and there are mammals outside of Carnivora that eat other mammals).

* Phylum (division in botany; the division goes directly beneath the class in zoology)

* ''Film/KillBill'': Only three of the members of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad are actually named for vipers.

* ''Literature/{{Spellsinger}}'' refers to shrews as "rodents".

* ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'' is often erroneously referred to as a rodent. Hedgehogs actually belong to the order Eulipotyphia, which indeed contains several ''other'' animals frequently mistaken for rodents (namely moles and shrews). Similarly to the ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' example (below in the Western Animation folder), hedgehogs and rodents are boreoeutherian mammals, and that's where they diverge: Eulipotyphia is in superorder Laurasiatheria (which contains animals like ungulates and bats), while Rodentia is in superorder Euarchontoglires (which contains animals like rabbits and primates).

* Literature/{{Childcraft}}: ''About Animals'' identifies arthropods as a "class" of animals, when it really is a phylum. It could be argued that ''phylum'' is too advanced a word for a book aimed at 6-year-olds, but that could also be argued of ''arthropod'', and that didn't stop the publishers. (Probably they figured that anything was better than risking spiders getting classed as "insects".) Even more JustForFun/{{egregious}} as there are more arthropods in existence than every other phylum of animals combined.

** "[[Recap/PhineasAndFerbTheReturnOfTheRogueRabbit The Return of the Rogue Rabbit]]": Subverted and also done in-universe when characters would object to [[ShownTheirWork rabbits being called rodents and correct that they are early episode "Toy to the World" had a platypus referred to as a marsupial. Later episodes corrected this and have platypodes properly identified as monotremes.