Tennis player Boris Becker as a nautilus; John Lennon as a tarantula. Scientific research can sometimes be tedious, but when scientists discover new animal species of animals, their imaginations sometimes go wild.
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5 animals you probably didn't know are related to celebrities
Tennis player Boris Becker as a nautilus; John Lennon as a tarantula. Scientific research can sometimes be tedious, but when scientists discover new animal species of animals, their imaginations sometimes go wild.
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Boris Becker
One of the slowest animals in the world is named after tennis ace Boris Becker. In 1996, the Munich-based biologist Manfred Parth discovered a new species of the snail genus Bufonaria off the Philippine coast. It was clear to the tennis fan that just one man could lend his name: Wimbledon-star Boris Becker. The snail is now called "Bufonaria borisbeckeri."
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John Lennon
Granted, there are definitely more flattering things than to have a spider named after you. But nothing can stop real Beatles fans. When a team of researchers discovered a new tarantula species in the Brazilian rainforest, they felt it just had to be called "Bumba lennoni." John Lennon had already lent his name to a wasp species and an extinct arthropod.
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Ozzy Osbourne
A new bat frog species was named after the self-proclaimed Prince of Darkness, and is known as "Dendropsophus ozzyi." The reason behind it was Osbourne's special "affection" for bats: The frontman of the heavy metal band Black Sabbath once bit off a bat's head on stage. At least according to legend, that is.
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Joe Strummer
Even marine researchers listen to punk rock. More precisely, biologist Shannon Johnson liked the British band The Clash. In tribute to the deceased frontman, she dubbed a deep sea snail "Alviniconcha strummeri." It lives in extreme conditions at depths of hundreds of feet close to hydrothermal springs, leading a dangerous "punk" life down there.
Mark Knopfler, rock dinosaur by trade, has an appropriate namesake since 2001. American paleontologists discovered a hitherto unknown carnivorous dinosaur in Madagascar and named it after the gifted guitarist: "Masiaksaurus knopfleri." They claimed that jamming to the music of Knopfler had inspired the expedition crew and pushed the search forward.
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What's going on in the head of a scientist who discovers a new species of spider and names it after John Lennon? In 2005 "Bumba lennoni," a hairy tarantula, was identified as a newly discovered species. It found its way into the net of a researcher and then into biology books, bearing the name of the most popular Beatle. Why? Just because its discoverer could do so.
When biologists uncover a new plant or animal species after a long period of meticulous research, they're rewarded with the chance to select its name - as long as it follows the rules of science.
Binomial nomenclature, established by the Swedish scientist Carl Linnaeus, calls for a strict order in naming new species, but at the same time leaves a surprising amount of freedom. The first part of the name, written in capital letters, identifies the genus, the second part is written in lower-case and identifies the species. Beyond that, there are no limits set to the creativity of a scientist in choosing a name for their newly found species.
In 2012, an Ecuadorian dotted frog was named after Prince Charles, "Hyloscirtus princecharlesi," and a demoiselle got the name "Umma gumma," in honor of the Pink Floyd album.
These choices probably aren't entirely coincidental - since most of the discovered creatures are rather unremarkable and only reported in scientific journals. A fossil woodpecker called Mandela or a tarantula called Lennon automatically get much more attention.
Click through the gallery above for five celebrities who have a namesake in the animal kingdom. Researchers estimate that millions of undiscovered animal species still exist in the world - so maybe you could see your name in binomial nomenclature one day, too.
