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The staff at Farthingbottom School are in a bit of a fix: the summer term exams are due to start soon, but the exam papers haven't arrived yet.

Dr Linnaeus (the Head of Biology) takes care of everything every year, but a couple of weeks ago he was taken seriously ill and he's still lying unconscious in hospital. Nobody knows if the papers have even been sent to the printers yet, or which printers are supposed to be dealing with them. All the details are on Dr Linnaeus' computer. Of course, nobody knows his password.

All the staff have to go on is the blackboard in his study and a comment during a discussion on passwords in the staff room some time ago where he mentioned that he favours those that are 20 characters long.

enter image description here

Question: Can you work out the password?

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  • $\begingroup$ May you give us an additional hint? I've been investigating every image for nearly an hour and a half, but can't find a pattern. $\endgroup$
    – Jose Lopez Garcia
    May 31, 2016 at 0:45
  • $\begingroup$ Is the red arrow saying we should start with image 6? Or is it simply pointing the shadow? Doesn't this shadow suspiciously remind us of the dog in image 7? $\endgroup$
    – Jose Lopez Garcia
    May 31, 2016 at 0:46
  • $\begingroup$ @joselopez The teachers don't believe that the shadow is relevant. $\endgroup$
    – Gordon K
    May 31, 2016 at 4:21
  • $\begingroup$ Does the name of the school (farthingbottom) have something to do with it? $\endgroup$
    – Anna
    May 31, 2016 at 14:28
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    $\begingroup$ @JoseLopez As the puzzle was posted less than 24 hours ago, I'd rather wait and see how people progress without further clues. Someone who hasn't seen it yet might come on and solve it. If there is no progress by this time tomorrow, I might add a hint. $\endgroup$
    – Gordon K
    May 31, 2016 at 20:56

1 Answer 1

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Password:

Paracanthurushepatus (Paracanthurus hepatus)

Overall question details:

The professor is Dr. Linnaeus better known as Carl Linnaeus who is known for his creation of Index Cards (likely not important for this puzzle) and his creation of the Linnaeus Taxonomy. Based on the fact that the white board says "My Family" and most of the images are of animals, I believe taxonomy (more specifically the families) are important for this puzzle

Images (listed in order shown on the board (number refers number shown on the picture)):

9:

Cetomimidae a.k.a Flabby whalefish, family = Cetomimi[d]ae

2 (listed in order from top left to bottom right (across then down)):

2.1:

Columbo(character)/Peter Falk(actor)

2.2:

Hercule Poirot(character)/Sir Peter Ustinov(actor)

2.3:

Inspector Clouseau(character)/Peter Sellers(character)

2.4:

Trunk a.k.a. an elephant nose

Which together might mean:

All actors named Peter then an elephant nose => Peters' Elephantnose Fish, family = M[o]rmyridae

4:

Queen Parrotfish, family = Sca[r]idae

11:

Crocodile Icefish, family = Channichth[y]idae

1:

Pearlside, family = [S]ternoptychidae
OP's intended fish: Round Whitefish, family = [S]almonidae

5:

Zebra stripes and map is of Turkey, so a Zebra Turkeyfish family = Scor[p]aenidae

8:

Goatfish fish that can change their color (maybe to white and blue), family = Mullida[e]
OP's specific goatfish: Bicolor Goatfish (same family)

3:

This is an Upside-down Catfish ignoring the Asian upside-down catfish, they all share the same family = Mo[c]hokidae

10:

This is an image of Maurice Tillet known as the french angel => French Angelfish family = Pomacanth[i]dae

7:

Black Dogfish, family = Etmopt[e]ridae
OP's intended fish: Broadbanded Lanternshark (a.k.a dogfish), same family

6:

Southern Sandfish which lives off the coast of Australia/New Zealand (hence the kangaroo), family = Lepto[s]copidae

Pattern:

All of the clues are types of fish

Next Step:

Take the letter at the specified number of each fish's family in order shown on the blackboard and you get DORYSPECIES. Dory from Finding Nemo is a royal blue tang which the species name is Paracanthurus hepatus, which contains 20 characters

Footnote: @Neon612 helped find a bunch of the clues

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    $\begingroup$ I am sure number 5 is also a map! What do you think? $\endgroup$
    – Jose Lopez Garcia
    May 31, 2016 at 20:40
  • $\begingroup$ @JoseLopez I hadn't thought about that, I will look a little more into that $\endgroup$
    – Gordon Allocman
    May 31, 2016 at 20:43
  • $\begingroup$ Other thing I thought, with respect image number 7. The words "Bend" and "100gb caps" are in orange. Maybe "Bend" refers to any of the animals that are bent over (like the goat or the kangaroo?), "100" is the number "4" in decimal, "gb" is an abbreviation for "Great Britain" (Peter Sellers is from GB; the other two are asians btw!) and "caps" maybe refers to those wearing a cap (i.e. Peter Sellers and the parrot!). Hidden message? $\endgroup$
    – Jose Lopez Garcia
    May 31, 2016 at 21:52
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    $\begingroup$ I believe #4 may be a King Parrot? $\endgroup$
    – feelinferrety
    May 31, 2016 at 22:50
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    $\begingroup$ #2 are all actors named Peter (also if the elephant is Jumbo/Dumbo all the names rhyme...), #7 I wouldn't read too much into the orange text as its just the standard logo, #10 I think he was known for his bearhug as a wrestler $\endgroup$
    – Scoranio
    Jun 1, 2016 at 0:02

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