Obscure south american monkey - CARARARA (websters 1913 dictionary) likewise
only found on wordlists seemingly.

Solved quite quickly again using perl using the Net::Dict module, a bit of
(ugly) brute force, and some graceful regular expressions to get the 1
million or so possible combinations down to about 4000 contenders for the
eight-letter attempt.


Michael Dufour.

Here's the code:

#Okay using windows no word lists to use
#install Net-Dict using ppm (perl package manager)
#use it! and specify website and dictionary to use
use Net::Dict;
$dict = Net::Dict->new('dict.org');
$dict->setDicts('web1913');
#establish translation table
%codon_dictionary = docodon();
#array of bases
@base = qw(A C G T);
#initialise some stuff
@words = ();
@matches = ();
@duds = ();
$ct = '';
#ugly! build the word
print "building wordlist\n";
for ($i=0; $i<4; $i++) {
 for ($j=0; $j<4; $j++) {
  for ($k=0; $k<4; $k++) {
   for ($l=0; $l<4; $l++) {
    for ($m=0; $m<4; $m++) {
     for ($n=0; $n<4; $n++) {
      for ($o=0; $o<4; $o++) {
       for ($p=0; $p<4; $p++) {
        for ($q=0; $q<4; $q++) {
         for ($r=0; $r<4; $r++) {
          $ct = @base[$i] . @base[$j] . @base[$k] . @base[$l] . @base[$m] .
@base[$n] . @base[$o] . @base[$p] . @base[$q] . @base[$r];
          $pt = '';
          for ($pos=0; $pos<8; $pos++) {
           $pt .= codon_to_aminoacid(substr($ct,$pos,3));
          }
          push (@words, $pt);
         }
        }
       }
      }
     }
    }
   }
  }
 }
}
print $#words, "\n";
#sort the array
print "sorting wordlist\n";
@words = sort @words;
$imax = $#words;
#filter out impossiblities
print "...filtering combinatons\n";
for ($i=0; $i<$imax; $i++) {
  $w = shift (@words);
  #These are the possible two-letter combinations of DNA
  if ($w =~ /_/ig) { next; }
  elsif ($w =~ /Q/ig) { next; }
  elsif ($w =~ /[APT][^HLPR]/ig) { next; }
  elsif ($w =~ /C[^A]/ig) { next; }
  elsif ($w =~ /S[^AV]/ig) { next; }
  elsif ($w =~ /[DHNSY][^IMT]/ig) { next; }
  elsif ($w =~ /[EK][^KNRS]/ig) { next; }
  elsif ($w =~ /F[^FLS]/ig) { next; }
  elsif ($w =~ /G[^ADEG]/ig) { next; }
  elsif ($w =~ /R[^ADEGV]/ig) { next; }
  elsif ($w =~ /I[^FLSY]/ig) { next; }
  elsif ($w =~ /M[^C]/ig) { next; }
  elsif ($w =~ /[LV][^CFLSY]/ig) { next; }
  elsif ($w =~ /W[^G]/ig) { next; }
  #Triple letters
  elsif ($w =~ /[FGKLP]{3,}/ig) { next; }
  #Brute force filter from inspection of smaller word combos
  elsif ($w =~ /[DY]T[LP]/ig) { next; }
  elsif ($w =~ /[IV]Y[MT]/ig) { next; }
  elsif ($w =~ /[FV]S[LPR]/ig) { next; }
  elsif ($w =~ /[HN]T[HLPR]/ig) { next; }
  elsif ($w =~ /[PST]RV/ig) { next; }
  elsif ($w =~ /[GRW]G[DGV]/ig) { next; }
  elsif ($w =~ /[RS]V[CFLSW]/ig) { next; }
  elsif ($w =~ /[PT]L[FLS]/ig) { next; }
  elsif ($w =~ /[FPTV]L[CW]/ig) { next; }
  elsif ($w =~ /[DHN]IY/ig) { next; }
  elsif ($w =~ /[DHNY]M[CW]/ig) { next; }
  elsif ($w =~ /(KN|D)[MT]/ig) { next; }
  elsif ($w =~ /[KPT]R[DG]/ig) { next; }
  elsif ($w =~ /(^I|^L|V)F[FLS]/ig) { next; }
  elsif ($w =~ /VC[AV]/ig) { next; }
  elsif ($w =~ /YI[FLY]/ig) { next; }
  elsif ($w =~ /PHM/ig) { next; }
  elsif ($w =~ /ESV/ig) { next; }
  elsif ($w =~ /GEK/ig) { next; }
  elsif ($w =~ /MWG/ig) { next; }
  elsif ($w =~ /PLL/ig) { next; }
  elsif ($w =~ /TPP/ig) { next; }
  elsif ($w =~ /EKR/ig) { next; }
  elsif ($w =~ /AHT/ig) { next; }
  elsif ($w =~ /VY[MT]/ig) { next; }
  elsif ($w =~ /^[DY]T[RH]/ig) { next; }
  elsif ($w =~ /^[AT]HM/ig) { next; }
  elsif ($w =~ /^TP[HLPR]/ig) { next; }
  #Potential to whittle down even more, but no time
  #Everything else must therefore be a possibility
  else { push (@words, $w); }
}
print $#words, "\n";
#obviously DNA coding can decipher to same plaintext
#so remove duplicates.  Crude but effective.
#Must be a better way in Perl
print "...filtering duplicates\n";
@temp = @words;
@words = ();
$done = 0;
$words[0] = $a = $temp[$i];
for ($i=1; $i<($#temp-1); $i++) {
  $b = $temp[$i];
  if ($b eq $a) {
    next;
  } else {
    push (@words, $b);
    $a = $b;
  }
}
#print "@words", "\n";
print $#words, "\n";
#exit;

#open (FILER, ">words.txt");
#$j = 0;
#$s = '';
#for ($i=0; $i<($#words-1); $i++) {
#   $j++;
#   if ($j<8) {
#     $s .= $words[$i];
#     $s .= "   ";
#   } else {
#     print FILER $s, "\n";
#     $j = 0;
#     $s = '';
#   }
#}
#exit;
#yeah yeah - go through wordlist - check if there are words matching
#the three letter starting combo then try and match
print "matching wordlist\n";
$done = 0;
$pp = 'ZZZ';
for ($i=0; $i<($#words-1); $i++) {
  $cp = substr($words[$i],0,3);
  if ($cp eq $pp) {
    if ($done == 1) {
      next;
    } else {
      $isword = word_search($words[$i]);
      if ($isword == 1) {
        print "\t", $words[$i], "\n";
        push (@matches, $words[$i]);
      }
      next;
    }
  } else {
    $pp = $cp;
    $done = 0;
    $ismatch = word_match($cp);
    if ($ismatch == 1) {
      $isword = word_search($words[$i]);
      if ($isword == 1) {
        print "\t", $words[$i], "\n";
        push (@matches,$words[$i]);
      }
      next;
    } else {
      push (@duds,$cp);
      $done = 1;
      next;
    }
  }
}
print "@matches";
exit;


sub word_search {
  my ($w) = @_;
  my $ref = $dict->define($w);
  if (@{@$ref[0]} ne '') {
    return '1';
  } else {
    return '0';
  }
}

sub word_match {
  my ($w) = @_;
  $ref = $dict->match($w,'prefix');
  if (@{@$ref[0]} ne '') {
    return '1';
  } else {
    return '0';
  }
}


sub docodon {
  my (%codon_dictionary) = (
    'TCA' => 'S',
		'TCC' => 'S',
  	'TCG' => 'S',
	  'TCT' => 'S',
  	'TTC' => 'F',
    'TTT' => 'F',
    'TTA' => 'L',
    'TTG' => 'L',
    'TAC' => 'Y',
    'TAT' => 'Y',
    'TAA' => '_',
    'TAG' => '_',
    'TGC' => 'C',
    'TGT' => 'C',
    'TGA' => '_',
    'TGG' => 'W',
    'CTA' => 'L',
    'CTC' => 'L',
    'CTG' => 'L',
    'CTT' => 'L',
    'CCA' => 'P',
    'CCC' => 'P',
    'CCG' => 'P',
    'CCT' => 'P',
    'CAC' => 'H',
    'CAT' => 'H',
    'CAA' => 'Q',
    'CAG' => 'Q',
    'CGA' => 'R',
    'CGC' => 'R',
    'CGG' => 'R',
    'CGT' => 'R',
    'ATA' => 'I',
    'ATC' => 'I',
    'ATT' => 'I',
    'ATG' => 'M',
    'ACA' => 'T',
    'ACC' => 'T',
    'ACG' => 'T',
    'ACT' => 'T',
    'AAC' => 'N',
    'AAT' => 'N',
    'AAA' => 'K',
    'AAG' => 'K',
    'AGC' => 'S',
    'AGT' => 'S',
    'AGA' => 'R',
    'AGG' => 'R',
    'GTA' => 'V',
    'GTC' => 'V',
    'GTG' => 'V',
    'GTT' => 'V',
    'GCA' => 'A',
    'GCC' => 'A',
    'GCG' => 'A',
    'GCT' => 'A',
    'GAC' => 'D',
    'GAT' => 'D',
    'GAA' => 'E',
    'GAG' => 'E',
    'GGA' => 'G',
    'GGC' => 'G',
    'GGG' => 'G',
    'GGT' => 'G',
  );
#  print keys %codon_dictionary;
  return %codon_dictionary;
}

sub codon_to_aminoacid {
	my ($codon) = @_;
	$codon = uc($codon);
	if (exists $codon_dictionary{$codon}) {
		return $codon_dictionary{$codon};
	} else {
		print STDERR "Bad codon: ";
		print "$codon!!\n\n";
		exit;
	}
}