gorilla

In the sixth century b.c. the navigator Hanno, from the city of Carthage, made a trip around the west coast of Africa. An account of his journey disappeared, though a Greek translation survives. Near the furthest point on their voyage Hanno and his men came upon an island “full of wild people, the greater part of whom were females, hairy on their bodies, whom our interpreters called Gorillas.” When the great ape we know as the gorilla was first described by scientists in the 1800s, it was given the Latin name Gorilla gorilla in recollection of Hanno's description—though exactly what Hanno saw in Africa we will never know.