Ok this may be a stupid thing to make a whole topic about but I just thought this was kind of a funny story about why common names can be so stupid. The viper boa was named the viper boa due to its resemblance to the death adder, a local species of venomous snake. You see what’s wrong with that sentence? The death adder is an elapid. Which itself was called an adder because for a brief period of time when Europeans first came to Australia they thought they were vipers. I’m not saying all common names are bad, but some can be pretty stupid.
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Language in general can be rather confusing just take a look at English we have words spelt the same but mean different, words that sound the same but are spelt different and we have words with “silent” letters then why do we need them? 
and then we have “rules” that are not always the rule but may be the exception 
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Yes, I understand language. I have a PhD in the subject. I was just saying that this was a fun example of how weird language can be.
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Kinda like Androctonus Australis, Australis means southern yet the Androctonus Australis is from the Northern part of Africa not the southern.
I have no degrees, never attended college, was a high school dropout (though i returned and graduated with the help of the military, not a GED)
Everything i ever learned was from reading or hands on practical experience and self taught.
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I very much respect self taught people. Props to you for being able to learn so much by yourself. Also, that’s another funny naming situation.
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This is why the binomial nomenclature is so important.
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I grew up with 13 siblings and we were poor so my parents taught us at 18 you had to make your own way in the world. My parents couldn’t afford to send anyone to college.
Growing up i use to read all my parents encyclopedias cover to cover from A to Z these were not children’s encyclopedias either. I preferred reading and art and caring for animals over everything else, i also taught myself cooking at 10.
I may not fully understand scientific studies about animals especially where math is concerned but i can get the basic jist of things. Reading compression and logic is really what saved me when i took the ASVAB for the military because my math skills are very remedial at best.
I can certainly respect people with degrees as it takes something i don’t have.
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To add to the naming confusion, there’s also the Calabar Python as it is commonly known which is actually a boa.
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And the new world python which is its own thing entirely.
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