New species of fungus identified via Twitter
1–10 of 101 posts
Re: New species of fungus identified via Twitter
#2With hindsight one could say it was only a matter of time.
Re: New species of fungus identified via Twitter
#3for the impatient:
yes, it's what it sounds like.
it's a fungus that lives on the reproductive organs of American centipedes.
They noticed it in a tweet, and quickly confirmed it in their museum collections.
Re: New species of fungus identified via Twitter
#4> the new species has now been given its official name, 'troglomyces twitteri'
Academia always seems so mature and serious from outside, nice to know there can be some lighthearted humor there too :)
As an aside, do you guys know any other Latin animal names that may have an 'untraditional' origin?
Re: New species of fungus identified via Twitter
#5> The newly discovered parasitic fungus has now been given its official Latin name, Troglomyces twitteri.
It only took me until 35 to realize these official, scientific-sounding names are part useful, part researchers trolling us.
Re: New species of fungus identified via Twitter
#6> the new species has now been given its official name, 'troglomyces twitteri' Academia always seems so mature and serious from outside, nice to know there can be some lighthearted humor there too :) As an aside, do you guys know any other Latin animal names that may have an 'untraditional' origin?
Look up "seenus peenus"
Re: New species of fungus identified via Twitter
#7> the new species has now been given its official name, 'troglomyces twitteri' Academia always seems so mature and serious from outside, nice to know there can be some lighthearted humor there too :) As an aside, do you guys know any other Latin animal names that may have an 'untraditional' origin?
It’s fairly normal for names of things few people are interested in such as insects and fungi.
https://www.gadgette.com/2016/02/29/these-are-the-silliest-s... mentions, for example, Pieza pi and Spongiforma squarepantsii.
Google easily gives you more examples, for example https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/the-worlds-str..., which explains the rules are not very strict: “The name must not be offensive, must be spelled in only the 26 letters of the Latin alphabet and may be derived from any language. In fact, a name need not be derived from anything at all; the rules state that an arbitrary combination of letters is also perfectly acceptable.”
Re: New species of fungus identified via Twitter
#8Maybe I’m being too dismissive, but this strikes me as an equivalent of existing-invention-but-using-a-computer software patents. I just don’t see how it’s particularly newsworthy or interesting that an image shared on Twitter was involved in the discovery.
It allowed for a headline that made me click, though.
Re: New species of fungus identified via Twitter
#9> the new species has now been given its official name, 'troglomyces twitteri' Academia always seems so mature and serious from outside, nice to know there can be some lighthearted humor there too :) As an aside, do you guys know any other Latin animal names that may have an 'untraditional' origin?
"Spongiforma squarepantsii"
Re: New species of fungus identified via Twitter
#10> the new species has now been given its official name, 'troglomyces twitteri' Academia always seems so mature and serious from outside, nice to know there can be some lighthearted humor there too :) As an aside, do you guys know any other Latin animal names that may have an 'untraditional' origin?
There is a chewing louse named after Gary Larson of The Far Side. :)