Scylla Posted December 11, 2012 Share Posted December 11, 2012 I am somehow disturbed by the idea of getting political with naming fossils... http://bostonglobe.com/news/science/2012/12/10/yale-scientists-name-obamadon-slender-jawed-lizard-after-president/mQ9aFnuzLqM1dCrhmIRYeL/story.html 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Missourian Posted December 11, 2012 Share Posted December 11, 2012 I don't think it would be necessarily desirable for the politician in question. "Run for your life! It's the Obamadon!" Context is critical. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scylla Posted December 11, 2012 Author Share Posted December 11, 2012 True, "he's coming to take a bite out of your paycheck!" but pro or con, it still seems unseemly. Maybe for a former president as an honor the way musicians get things named for them. Doesn't Obamadon translate to Obama tooth? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Missourian Posted December 11, 2012 Share Posted December 11, 2012 Well, there apparently is a 'bush lizard' (Urosaurus) as well. Context is critical. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Auspex Posted December 11, 2012 Share Posted December 11, 2012 How is this necessarily political? Because the honoree is a politician? "There has been an alarming increase in the number of things I know nothing about." - Ashleigh Ellwood Brilliant “Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.” - Thomas Henry Huxley >Paleontology is an evolving science. >May your wonders never cease! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
piranha Posted December 11, 2012 Share Posted December 11, 2012 Absolutely absurd to politicize the naming of a fossil for cheap notoriety. With the divided electorate that gets you as many friends as enemies.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AgrilusHunter Posted December 11, 2012 Share Posted December 11, 2012 Absolutely absurd to politicize the naming of a fossil for cheap notoriety. With the divided electorate that gets you as many friends as enemies.... More controversial honorees have happened. Mesoparapylocheles michaeljacksoni "They ... savoured the strange warm glow of being much more ignorant than ordinary people, who were only ignorant of ordinary things." -- Terry Pratchett Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Missourian Posted December 11, 2012 Share Posted December 11, 2012 More controversial honorees have happened. Mesoparapylocheles michaeljacksoni Well, the carapace does kind of resemble Michael's nose job. Context is critical. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Auspex Posted December 11, 2012 Share Posted December 11, 2012 I think that what I find galling is that naming a species after a high-profile person with no connection to the described specimen (or to science, for that matter) seems frivolous. There is no back story, no connection. Better to stick with tradition when exercising the traditions of science. "There has been an alarming increase in the number of things I know nothing about." - Ashleigh Ellwood Brilliant “Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.” - Thomas Henry Huxley >Paleontology is an evolving science. >May your wonders never cease! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fruitbat Posted December 11, 2012 Share Posted December 11, 2012 I heartily agree with Auspex...though I must admit getting a chuckle out of some names like Arfia for an ancient dog and Dracorex hogwartsi. Traditionally...when a taxon was named after a person it was named to honor a significant contributor in the world of science. -Joe 1 Illigitimati non carborundum Fruitbat's PDF Library Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PRK Posted December 11, 2012 Share Posted December 11, 2012 (edited) One of My neighbors went to Berkeley in the mid 1960s. he did his thesis on somewhere that had brachiopods. there were two new ones he got to name---------something? jaegerensis and (dont remember) zappaii. I thought that was kinda neat! Edited December 11, 2012 by PRK Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeR Posted December 11, 2012 Share Posted December 11, 2012 Don't forget the scientific contribution of T. jeff. But that was a different time. "A problem solved is a problem caused"--Karl Pilkington "I was dead for millions of years before I was born and it never inconvenienced me a bit." -- Mark Twain Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeR Posted December 11, 2012 Share Posted December 11, 2012 It won't be the first time that a president was honored--Chesapecten jeffersonius and Chesapecten madisonius. "A problem solved is a problem caused"--Karl Pilkington "I was dead for millions of years before I was born and it never inconvenienced me a bit." -- Mark Twain Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpc Posted December 11, 2012 Share Posted December 11, 2012 I persoanlly enjoy fun names in nomenclature. The extinct Australian snake Montypythonoides is my personal favorite. There is a Cretaceous something from Madagascar named after Dire Straits leadman Mark Knopfler.... something or other knopfleri... the guys who named it listened to a lot of Dire Straits in the quarry. Cartoonist Gary Larsen, of The Far Side, fame has some louse named after him. I like this stuff, even if it makes me roll my eyes. Nowadays some folks are actually auctioning off (to help fund research) the naming rights to new species... yes if The Home Depot is willing to pay up, there will soon me a Critterosaurus HomeDepoti...possibly even with a capital D in the middle. I find this hugely more cheezey, ludicrous and disturbing than naming it after any president. On the other hand, for Xmas I am flying into Ronald Reagan Airport... I am sooooo bummed. I once mentioned my feelings about this airport's name over lunch with the chief of Montana's Republican party... that was a show-stopper. Oops. But one of the better stories I've managed to accumulate. And he still let me go collecting on his place. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coco Posted December 11, 2012 Share Posted December 11, 2012 Hi, Anecdotally, our ex-president of the republic was not liked, and in the paleontology world, a lot of people spoken of him in "Sarcosuchus" or "Sarcosuchus imperator"... The biggest difference which existed between him and this nice old reptile was their size ! Coco ---------------------- OUTIL POUR MESURER VOS FOSSILES : ici Ma bibliothèque PDF 1 (Poissons et sélaciens récents & fossiles) : ici Ma bibliothèque PDF 2 (Animaux vivants - sans poissons ni sélaciens) : ici Mâchoires sélaciennes récentes : ici Hétérodontiques et sélaciens : ici Oeufs sélaciens récents : ici Otolithes de poissons récents ! ici Un Greg... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scylla Posted December 11, 2012 Author Share Posted December 11, 2012 I think that what I find galling is that naming a species after a high-profile person with no connection to the described specimen (or to science, for that matter) seems frivolous. There is no back story, no connection. Better to stick with tradition when exercising the traditions of science. I agree. Some rock musicians or Hogwarts castle for that matter represent something meaningful to the person naming the critter, but I think that naming it after a sitting politician is what I find troubling. I would be just as opposed to naming it after the researcher's current university president (has anyone done that yet?) I know that Jefferson made significant contributions to early American paleontology (I heard he even thought that mammoths might be found by Lewis and Clark on the expedition he sent them on) so I don't mind so much that he gets his own scallop. Was it named during his incumbency? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Auspex Posted December 11, 2012 Share Posted December 11, 2012 Chesapecten jeffersonius was described and named by Thomas Say in 1824, two years before the former 2nd President's death (and 15 years after his term in office). Interestingly, the fossil pecten had been enshrined by Martin Lister as the first fossil from the new world to appear in scientific literature, in 1687. "There has been an alarming increase in the number of things I know nothing about." - Ashleigh Ellwood Brilliant “Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.” - Thomas Henry Huxley >Paleontology is an evolving science. >May your wonders never cease! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AgrilusHunter Posted December 11, 2012 Share Posted December 11, 2012 (edited) Chesapecten jeffersonius was described and named by Thomas Say in 1824, two years before the former 2nd President's death (and 15 years after his term in office). Interestingly, the fossil pecten had been enshrined by Martin Lister as the first fossil from the new world to appear in scientific literature, in 1687. Thomas Say is my second favorite naturalist with strong ties to Indiana, he's only surpassed by W.S. Blatchley. Our Purdue entomology undergraduate society is named in honor of him. We also have a good number of Thomas Say themed geocaches hidden around campus. Sorry for the blatant plug. Edited December 11, 2012 by AgrilusHunter "They ... savoured the strange warm glow of being much more ignorant than ordinary people, who were only ignorant of ordinary things." -- Terry Pratchett Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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