The fans of various artists, athletes and musicians can be inspired to create websites and all sorts of other stuff in their honor. Sometimes, their very names are slapped onto newly discovered animal species.
In 2012, British scientists discovered a new breed of Yeti crab in a deep sea ocean vent off the shores of Antarctica. These crabs are noted for their hair-like setae that grow around their claws and limbs. The specimens they encountered were almost completely covered in the bristles. They decided to name the crustacians after the equally hairy actor David Hasselhoff. Their real, official name: Hoff crabs.
A year prior, Bryan Lessard, a 24-year-old researcher at Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, discovered an extremely rare fly in its archives. It had been captured and cataloged back in 1981 but no one had bothered to give the bug, which featured a golden-haired posterior, a name. Lessard decided to dub it Scaptia beyonceae after the “bootylicious” and golden-haired singer Beyonce, who happened to be born in 1981.
A prehistoric swamp pig was recently bestowed with the title Jaggermeryx naiad paleoanthropologist Ellen Miller named it after Mick Jagger. Much like the Rolling Stones frontman, the pig, which once roamed the plains of Africa about 19 million years ago, likely had a big pair of lips. It may have used its upper one to snuffle out food along river banks. Miller’s colleagues wanted to name the pig after the equally lippy Angelina Jolie, but Miller got her way.
A 500 million year-old lobster fossil was named after Johnny Depp in 2013 According to the scientists who uncovered the ancient crustacean, it sort of resembled the titular character Depp played in Edward Scissorhands. Kooteninchela deppi once lived off the coast of British Columbia and had super-sharp claws it used to hunt down prey.
