Boxing Gloves and a Night Demon: How Sea Creatures Get Their Latin Names

A crab named after a Roman boxing glove, an anemone named after a night demon, an urchin whose name simply says "of the red sea". Scientific names look arbitrary until you learn that nobody approves them: a name is staked like a mining claim, anchored to one specimen in a museum jar, and settled by whoever published first. Here is how the system works, and why the name you learned keeps changing.