4 animals and species named after renowned personalities

These species are famous and loved for the name they have. Check them out now.

The forest lands on planet earth covered in a layer of green are home to some of the most unique and unknown animals and species. While many have been discovered by researchers and scientists, the new range of these species is being given celebrity names. In fact, the naming of these species after celebrities is attributed to the fact that some of their traits resemble them. Some of such species are listed below.

Materpiscis attenboroughi

The Materpiscis attenboroughi was a prehistoric armoured fish named after the famous British broadcaster and naturalist David Attenborough. A fossilised M. attenboroughi, a placoderm, was discovered in Australia in 2005. The Latin word "materpiscis" means "mother" and researchers discovered a baby's skeleton inside the well-preserved specimen, with the umbilical cord still attached. This discovery revealed that live birth had existed for approximately 380 million years, much longer than previously thought.

Atheris hetfieldi

Researchers and Metallica fans, Dr. Luis Ceriaco and Mariana Marques named a new genetic African bush viper Atheris hetfieldi after Metallica frontman James Hetfield. It was the first new snake species discovered in Equatorial Guinea's Bioko Island in much more than 100 years, at the base of a volcano.

Avahi cleesi

The Bemaraha woolly lemur, also known as Cleese's woolly lemur and found in western Madagascar, was named after Monty Python comedian John Cleese. Cleese fell in love with lemurs while working on the documentary In The Wild. Zurich University discovered the species in 1990, and it was officially characterised in 2005. They have brown fur, large eyes, and a short nose and weigh between 11 and 13 pounds. Lemurs are only found in Madagascar, which has been isolated for approximately 88 million years and is a biodiversity hotspot. The island is home to at least 700 vertebrate species and 12,000 plant species.

Aleiodes shakirae

The Aleiodes shakirae wasp is named after Colombian singer-songwriter Shakira. It is one of 24 new aleiodes wasps discovered in the Andes Mountains. They are parasitic wasps that attack and destroy their hosts, usually by feeding them or laying their eggs inside them. The new aleiodes were named after Shakira by the entomologists who found it because the wasp creates the caterpillar to wiggle and shake, which researchers associate with belly dancing. Other celebrities honoured by the new aleiodes wasps include comedians John Stewart, Stephen Colbert, and Jimmy Fallon.

A few other animals and species named after celebrities are the Beyonce horse fly, John Cleese lemur,  George Bush beetle, Adolf Hitler beetle, Kate Winslet beetle, Bob Marley parasite, and Richard Dawkins fish.