New wasp named after Sir David Attenborough for his 100th birthday
Ahead of the conservationist's centennial, scientists have christened a parasitic wasp in his honor—and it’s just the latest creature to be named after him.
As celebrated English broadcaster Sir David Attenborough turns 100 years old, he is receiving an unusual gift: a tiny wasp named after him.
The official designation of Attenboroughnculus tau, a little creature that devours other insects alive, was announced in the Journal of Natural History ahead of Attenborough’s birthday, which is on May 8.
More than 50 species have been named in Attenborough’s honor so far, including an echidna rediscovered after more than 60 years, a fungus that turns spiders into zombies, a ghost shrimp described from just one specimen, and a giant carnivorous pitcher plant. But this small, parasitic wasp joins an even more elite group of just a few genera that carry Attenborough’s name. (A genus is a group of closely related species, and the genus name precedes the species name in scientific nomenclature).
As the renowned naturalist turns 100, here’s what you need to know about the newest species named after him—and the other creatures, great and small, that share his moniker.
Meet Attenboroughnculus tau
Although the name of this wasp was unveiled to the world today, the specimen was found decades ago. Collected from Chile in 1983, the creature found its way to the London Natural History Museum’s collection where it joined a hoard of unidentified specimens waiting to be examined.
There’s a surprising diversity among different wasps. “Everyone's classic idea of a wasp is the yellow and black friend of picnics,” says study author Gavin Broad, Principal Curator, Insects at the London Natural History Museum. “But that's just a tiny part of waspness. Most of the things that we call wasps are rather small, little things that parasitize other insects.”
Museum volunteer Augustijn De Ketelaere was sorting unidentified wasps into groups and thought the specimen was interesting. Broad immediately agreed. He noticed “a bunch of things that made me realize I've never seen this before,” he says, “and I have, hopefully, seen quite a lot of the world's diversity of wasps.”
To other people, this animal might just look like a “squishy little insect,” he admits. But examining the 3.5-millimeter individual under the microscope, he noted the distinctive T-shaped marking on its abdomen, polished groove on its hind legs, and toothlike structures on its oviposter (egg-laying organ). “It's just a weird and wonderful new thing that we couldn't classify in any of the existing genera,” he says.
Broad—a wasp taxonomist—says Attenborough introduced him to the word ‘taxonomy’ when he was young. In choosing the name Attenboroughnculus, the team wanted to honor the man who has inspired so many people around the world. An animal so unique that it forms its own genus needs to be named after someone very special, he says. “We thought, well, who's important enough to have a genus named after them? Surely, David Attenborough.”
Broad says Attenborough was pleased to hear about the name: “He sent a very nice handwritten note, actually, saying he's very complimented.”
Behold the Attenborosaurus
Although many individual species now share Attenborough’s name, just a few genera have the same honor, including a flowering plant (Sirdavidia) and an extinct horseshoe crab (Attenborolimulus).
Another is the wonderfully named Attenborosaurus. This long-necked extinct marine reptile could be mistaken for the Loch Ness Monster but is, in fact, a type of plesiosaur.
When American paleontologist Edward Drinker Cope reconstructed plesiosaur remains in the 1860s, he couldn't make head nor tail of the strange creature. “He put the head on the tail because he just couldn't envisage an animal having such a long neck,” says Marc Jones, curator of fossil reptiles at London’s Natural History Museum, where a cast of an Attenborosaurus is on display (the original was destroyed in the Second World War).
This embarrassing mistake could have been prevented. Fossil hunter Mary Anning had already found a complete Plesiosaurus skeleton with its head balanced on its extended neck. This important discovery in 1823 got people talking about the possibility of animals going extinct, says Jones, “because there's nothing alive today with that body shape.”
When Attenborosaurus’ remains were first found, the species was called Plesiosaurus conybeari. But, in the 1990s, American paleontologist Bob Bakker reexamined the specimen and determined it different enough from other species to merit its own genus. He renamed it Attenborosaurus conybeari.
(The dining habits of a Jurassic sea dragon)
This ancient reptile swam through the seas 190 million years ago, long before Stegosaurus, Diplodocus, T-Rex or Triceratops roamed the Earth. The creature probably swam through the water finding squid-like animals and fish to devour using its sharp teeth and trap-like interlocking jaws.
Having its head so far from its body may have minimized disturbance created by its flippers, which “perhaps made it easier for it to sneak up on things,” says Jones.
Scientists think its limbs moved up and down as it swam, more like a penguin’s wings than a turtle’s flippers. “Some people have actually compared them more to dragonflies,”he says. “There's nothing that swims like that today.”
Attenborough himself was rather chuffed to have an entire genus named after him. “Attenborosaurus is really something isn’t it?” he told the Washington Post in a 2015 interview.
(From Darth Vader to Jelly Doughnuts, weird species names abound)
Frogs, slugs, and butterflies, oh my
The long list of species named after Attenborough continues to grow with more than 50 organisms carrying his name to date. These include a colorful Tasmanian semi-slug (whose shell is too small for it to retract inside), a type of hawkweed found only in the Welsh Brecon Beacons, a rare Amazonian butterfly with arresting eyes on its wings, and a tiny Peruvian frog whose young skip the free-swimming tadpole stage and emerge from eggs as fully formed froglets.
There’s also a polar research vessel with Attenborough’s moniker. The RRS Sir David Attenborough was almost called Boaty McBoatface after a nationwide competition to name the ship but experts overruled the irreverent British public’s decision in favor of honoring the much-loved broadcaster.
