Ingham’s W RLD
MARILYN Monroe and a cockroach have little in common, you might think. One is a byword for beauty, the other for scrabbling about in the dirt. But when scientists discovered the fossil of a trilobite, a prehistoric cockroach, they called it Norasaphus monroeae because its outline reminded them of the sex symbol’s hourglass figure.
I’ve seen a photo of the fossil and those scientists need to spend less time with fossils and more with girls.
But Marilyn is just one of countless celebrities after whom newly discovered creatures have been named, says the gardening advice website lovethegarden. com.
Often the links are obvious. Jaggermeryx naida was named after Mick Jagger, not because of its dance moves but its distinctive puckered lips.
Lady Gaga won her place in taxonomy by wearing a heart- shaped dress for the 2010 Grammy Awards – a near perfect match for the delicate blue fern now sharing her family name, Gaga germanotta.
Duke University professor Kathleen Pryer said: “We wanted to name this genus for Lady Gaga because of her fervent defence of equality and individual expression.” Yeah, right.
One reason scientists like to name discoveries after luvvies is because it’s considered bad form to name them after yourself. And you’ll get more recognition if you link them to a celeb.
So there’s an Amazon tree frog with batlike calls named after batbiting rocker Ozzy Osbourne ( Dendropsophus ozzyi), a Charlie Chaplin fly ( Campsicnemus charliechaplini) whose legs on death buckle into his trademark bandylegged walk, and Psephophorus Terrypratchetti, an extinct turtle named after the Discworld author whose fantasy world rested on elephants standing on the back of a giant turtle.
There are fictional heroes too. Harry Potter’s soul- sucking Dementors get a mention in dispatches with Ampulex Dementor, a wasp which can zombify and suck the life out of cockroaches.
There’s Agathidium Vaderi, a black beetle resembling Darth Vader, and Yoda purpurata, a worm whose lips look like the small green Jedi’s ears.
My favourites include Agra schwarzeneggeri, a beetle with big Terminator- style forearms, and Ootenichela deppi, an extinct arthropod with two blade- like claws, similar to Johnny Depp’s character Edward Scissorhands.
Then there’s Scaptia beyonceae, a horse fly with a splendid big yellow bottom.
Who says scientists don’t have a sense of humour? A NEW bird guide packed with colour photos will help many a birder struggling to identify anything from finches to fieldfare. Take the thrushes – song have arrow- shaped speckles and mistle round ones. The book also tells you how likely you are to see a species depending on the time of year. THE first of what could be 1,800 seal pups was born on the National Trust’s mystical Farne Islands this week.
Now’s the time to take boat trips to see them in their white coats off Northumberland. You’ll have to wrap up warm – but it’ll be worth it. GREEN TIP: Remember your “bags for life” to avoid the Government’s 5p charge for plastic bags. JAPAN thinks it’s being very clever defying a global ban on whaling. But consumers of whalemeat risk paying a very heavy price. All 20 products analysed by the Environmental Investigation Agency were above Tokyo’s safety limit for mercury. One whale contained so much mercury it was 47 times over the safety limit. Time to give it up. BEER drinkers could soon power the planet, thanks to Chesterbased C- Tech Innovation and Imperial College London. Their device uses sugar- rich wastewater from breweries to generate electricity and is one of 32 projects sharing £ 11million under the Government- backed Energy Catalyst scheme. I’ll drink to that.