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.
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."
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.
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.
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
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.