You too can be a taxonomist
When you think about it, there are relatively few ways to achieve immortality. Here’s one of them.
For $3,700 and up, you can pick a name for one of the many organisms that are discovered by scientists each year.
It’s all about taxonomy, the science of naming and cataloguing living things. Once considered a high scientific calling, interest in taxonomy has waned to the extent that some recently discovered organisms have no names.
Right about now, you’re thinking there isn’t much left to name.
Read Also
Agriculture needs to prepare for government spending cuts
As government makes necessary cuts to spending, what can be reduced or restructured in the budgets for agriculture?
Wrong. According to Biopat, the non-profit group that began this name-the-organism project, about 10,000 new species are documented each year. About 1.8 million species have been recorded, but Biopat says that likely accounts for less than 10 percent of all the animal and plant species in existence.
So, in return for a donation, you can affix the name of your choice to an insect, a toad or even a whale. Once a species is named, it can be documented, studied and if necessary, protected. Whatever happens, you’ll be kept informed about the status of your chosen organism. See www.biopat.de for details on the web.
There are limits to this naming business, of course. It has to fit with general guidelines for scientific names, which have their basis in Latin or Greek. Stuff like Ursus horribilus (grizzly bear) and Musmus domesticus (common house mouse.) Or Bufo allanlaughlandi (Allan Laughland’s toad), except that’s probably not in the Producer publisher’s budget.
Taxonomists of the past have had their fun. There’s a midge called Dicrotendipes thanatorgratus, which is Latin for the Grateful Dead. There are wasps named Heerz lukenatcha and Verae peculya.
Want to get on board? How about Hosta lavista, for a new variety of shade-loving perennial? Papaver andseemesometime, for a new poppy? Canna woodchuckchuk for a new lily-type flower?
As for organisms named after people, I suggest any new frog be named Rana campaigni to honor Preston Manning. Bos tory would aptly honor Alberta premier Ralph Klein, should a new type of bovine be discovered. For Saskatchewan premier Roy Romanow, the next species of yew tree should be called Taxus interminabli.
But imagination fails when it comes to suitable species names to recognize prime minister Jean ChrŽtien. There’s already a beetle named Agra vation.
