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New species of fungus identified via Twitter

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Re: New species of fungus identified via Twitter

#31
post #22

> 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.

they should have let Twitter name it too in a Twitter poll

Fungy McFungusface.

Re: New species of fungus identified via Twitter

#33

I have a few photographs, (may be most people have too,) of a few plants/fungi and animals/insects I couldn't identify, even after consulting resources like Wikipedia. What is the best way to get a species identification from a photograph.

Not sure what they're called, but there are subreddits for identifying bugs and plants and stuff

Re: New species of fungus identified via Twitter

#36
post #22

> 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.

they should have let Twitter name it too in a Twitter poll

That would have likely ended in something along these lines:

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/22/world/europe/boaty-mcboat...

Re: New species of fungus identified via Twitter

#37
post #25

> 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?

Not Latinified, but a key protein in brain and spinal cord development is called sonic hedgehog. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonic_hedgehog The oddest thing was sitting through neuro lectures when this was introduced as if it was the most normal name in the world. We were looking at each other like "are we hearing this right?"

>It has been noted that mention of a mutation in a sonic hedgehog gene might not be well received in a discussion of a serious disorder with a patient or their family.

Imaging being told by a doctor that you have sonic the hedgehog disorder.

Re: New species of fungus identified via Twitter

#38

> 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?

Not quite what you're asking for, but you might be amused by the etymology of "thagomizer":

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thagomizer

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