Nerd Pride Day: 11 Times Geeks Named Scientific Findings
1. Moon Mountains
Saturn's Titan moon has 13 mountains named after the work of JRR Tolkien, author of The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, and Silmarillion. These include Mount Doom, Erebor and the Shadow Mountains, as well as characters such as Arwen, Bilbo, Faramir and Gandalf.
2. Wasp
A public vote named a new species of wasp, discovered in Thailand: Ampulex dementor . She mentions the dementors, who are scary characters in the "Harry Potter" saga written by JK Rowling. The tribute came because the wasp turns cockroaches into their incubators like zombies.
3. Beetle
In Papua New Guinea, scientists discovered a beetle that was called the Trigonopterus chewbacca . The honoree this time was “Star Wars” Chewbacca. The name was because of its dense scales on the head and paws, which resemble the fur of Han Solo's companion.
4. Arachnid
And to prove that we also have geeks here in Brazil, a scientist named a new arachnid as Landumoema smeagol . Like Sméagol from "The Lord of the Rings, " the new species of opilion was found at the bottom of a cave. In the case of this spider “cousin”, the find was in the city of Monjolos (MG) - not in the Dark Mountains of Middle-earth.
5. Bee
Also in Brazil, we have the bee Euglossa bazinga, which makes reference to the slogan of the character Sheldon in the ultranerd series “The Big Bang Theory”. The name was given after scientists thought the discovery was actually a known bee. However, noticing the differences, they found it cool to put a geek name that resembled a trick question.
6. Fish
Another Brazilian nerd animal: Otocinclus batmani . And he's not even a kind of bat! In fact, despite being named after the Dark Knight, this is a type of fish found in the Amazon. The name came from the spot on the caudal fin of this species, which resembles the Batman symbol.
7. Slug
Daenerys Targaryen's blond hair from “Game of Thrones” was the inspiration for a new species of sea slug discovered in Ceará. Tritonia khaleesi has white stripes that resemble the dragon mother's braids.
8. Snail
The snail Halystina umberlee lives deep in the seas and was named after the fictional goddess Umberlee of RPG Dungeons & Dragons. Since she lives deep in the ocean, it is no better than lending her name to the snail.
9. Dinosaur
But not only live animals make this list: Dracorex hogwartsia is a dinosaur that lived in the Cretaceous period in North America and was named after the school of magic where the events of "Harry Potter" take place.
10. Spider
Writer HP Lovercraft created the cosmic entity Cthulhu in 1928, with a look that blends man, octopus and dragon! In the wild, she was the inspiration to name the spider Pimoa cthulhu .
11. Moon Craters
We will end the list again in space, but this time on Pluto's moon Charon. There, "Star Wars" and "Star Trek" coexist peacefully, as characters from the two sagas named the craters Vader, Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Spock, Kirk and Uhura!
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* Posted on 5/25/2016
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