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Tuesday, July 10, 2012

New species named for Bob Marley

Latest Carribean crustacean

Bring on the fresh crab - with reggae music.  OK, not a crab, but a crustacean, albeit a tiny parasitic one. Its namesake: Reggae legend Bob Marley.  Scientific name: Gnathia marleyi. 
Scientists have to get creative in name species: we now have way more species than we have Greek or Latin words to apply to.  So we have:
 - A lichen named for President Obama
 - A frog named for Prince Charles (frog, prince, get it?)
 - Not one but two insects named for Steve Colbert
 - A trilobite (ancient, get it?) named for Mick Jagger
 - and a fly named for Beyonce. 

If we ever find the Loch Ness monster, maybe we'll name it for longtime monster hunter Tim Dinsdale - or maybe for Vladimir Lenin (a dinosaur, get it?)

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