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Idle Science

Bloodsucking Parasite Named After Bob Marley 64

Posted by samzenpus from the three-little-reef-fish dept.
Hugh Pickens writes "The Christian Science Monitor reports that Gnathia marleyi, a tiny crustacean that feeds off the blood of reef-dwelling Caribbean fish, has been named in honor – for lack of a better term – of the Jamaican musician Bob Marley. Marley, who died in 1981, was an iconic exponent of the Jamaican-born music known as reggae. One of his standards is 'No Woman, No Cry.' Marley joins the 'I have a species named after me' club, which includes Barack Obama, Stephen Colbert, Mick Jagger, and Beyonce. 'I named this species, which is truly a natural wonder, after Marley because of my respect and admiration for Marley's music,' says Paul Sikkel, an assistant professor of marine ecology at Arkansas State University. 'Plus, this species is as uniquely Caribbean as was Marley.' Juvenile gnathid isopods hide within coral rubble or algae so they can launch surprise attacks on fish, and then infest them. As adults, the parasites don't eat. 'We believe that adults subsist for two to three weeks on the last feedings they had as juveniles and then die, hopefully after they have reproduced,' says Sikkel. Specimens of Gnathia marleyi will be housed indefinitely at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. 'We are currently discussing with AMNH the possibility of creating an exhibit featuring this species that could be viewed by the public.'"
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Bloodsucking Parasite Named After Bob Marley More

Bloodsucking Parasite Named After Bob Marley

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  • But... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by msauve ( 701917 ) on Wednesday July 11, 2012 @08:46PM (#40623345)
    Isn't there some Wall St. banker, living off the usury, after which a blood sucking parasite would be better named?

  • Yoko? (Score:4, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 11, 2012 @08:47PM (#40623357)

    Is Yoko Ono already named after something ?

  • Don't forget Strigiphilus Garylarsoni (Score:5, Informative)

    by tragedy ( 27079 ) on Wednesday July 11, 2012 @08:53PM (#40623411)

    Gary Larson (creator of _The Far Side_) had a variety of chewing louse that infests owls named after him: Strigiphilus Garylarsoni [wikipedia.org].

  • The parasite does not refuse blood infusions.

  • Great tags! (Score:5, Funny)

    by Tim the Gecko ( 745081 ) on Wednesday July 11, 2012 @09:17PM (#40623595)
    "reefmadness" and "nocrustaceannocry" are great tags. Thank you someone out there!
  • This is pretty good music to chill out to [youtube.com]
    I just find it amusing, I'm listening to some Bob, even No woman No Cry when I run across this article

    I wanna read a biography on the man sometime. I hear he even brokered peace between two nations at one point.

  • apparently someone read that Headline story (Score:4, Insightful)

    by decora ( 1710862 ) on Wednesday July 11, 2012 @09:25PM (#40623661) Journal

    recently about how Huffington Post can put up the same story with an inflammatory title and get 10 times more hits than the New York Times.

  • Rather Ironic (Score:4, Interesting)

    by walshy007 ( 906710 ) on Wednesday July 11, 2012 @09:30PM (#40623705)

    The funny thing is he was rather anti-science and anti-medicine. I mean the guy refused to be treated for skin cancer because of his religious beliefs... skin cancer is easy to treat compared to most other cancers, you just remove it.

    I'd almost put it up for the darwin award, where people let religious beliefs kill them.

    Also unlike the stereotypical peace-loving image, he was known to get in quite a few fights in his day. He was also quite rebellious. I don't see this as a bad thing, but I think it is kind of crazy how he has been romanticized as a bringer of peace after his death.

    • or maybe Ira "I dont know how she got in that trunk in my closet" Einhorn?

    • Well in his case "just removing it" meant amputating his foot, but as much as I love the guy and his art I have to agree he reasoning for not doing it makes him a Darwin contender. Nevertheless he is still a "hero" of mine, not for anything he did but for what he managed to express in his art and persona. John Lennon and Pink Floyd have a similar strong appeal to me, however I'm old enough to realise all "heros" have feet of clay.

  • lyrics (Score:3, Interesting)

    by theb4sa ( 2682269 ) on Wednesday July 11, 2012 @09:52PM (#40623841)
    “the babylon system is a vampiresucking the blood of the sufferer”

  • It seems these are related to Hippius Pesticus, usually seeking to seek money, food and favors out of the creatures around them. It's likely the Hippius evolved from this more simple blood-sucker to diversify to make itself more adaptable to varying environments and the rise of humans -- probably around the same time the Ancient Aliens wiped out the Dinosaurs to make way for Humans so they could farm Xenomorphs.

    • So what you are saying is, humans are tools of the military-industrial complex, and therefore the parasitic species is evolutionarily superior (since it is able to adapt rather than being force into a form)?

      I realise the snark was intended to be funny... but it is an interesting foray.

  • How about an entire profession? (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    I nominate Legalis Professionem.

    Merely a step ahead of the Wall Street types.

  • Bob Marley? (Score:3)

    by Shoten ( 260439 ) on Wednesday July 11, 2012 @11:48PM (#40624439)

    Why not call it Yoko instead?

  • Not named after his record company??? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 11, 2012 @11:53PM (#40624461)

    They ripped him off and live like parasites on his music to this day... madness.

  • Sponsor a species (Score:4, Interesting)

    by wisebabo ( 638845 ) on Thursday July 12, 2012 @12:31AM (#40624647) Journal

    Ok, I know this is desperate but with the ecosystem facing another Great Extinction (where a substantial portion of the species on Earth are going to be driven to extinction except this time is because of US)* we've got to do something.

    Why not auction off the names of newly discovered species? (And preferably give the money to conservation efforts).

    I think people (and maybe even corporations) would be more interested in conservation if they had a species named after them. If they knew their species was endangered or the habitat their species lived in was threatened, they might rally to save it. I mean, this is another form of IMMORTALITY, very few people will be remembered after a few centuries but a species name? It reminds me of the scientist Seaborg, he said while other scientists got Nobel prizes he was on the periodic table for eternity! (or something like that).

    Maybe if we get REALLY desperate we could re-name already named species. I know it's repulsive but surely Exxon would pay a huge amount to have the (scientific) name of the Tiger changed to it. Or Apple would similarly pay perhaps for the entire family of apples to be named, well you get it.

    While unglamorous (is that a word?) species wouldn't fetch much money perhaps, in some cases, that could be turned around. Consider the guinea worm, a species very close to eradication (yay!). Just like smallpox, it could be named because there is no such thing as bad publicity. (Some pest removal company would probably pay dearly for that name!).

    *no I don't mean US as in United States (although I know we bear more than our share of the blame). Anyway, have you seen the funny video "So you've got a case of the Humans"?

  • Don't forget Frank Zappa, with 4 species and an asteroid [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_zappa#References_in_arts_and_sciences]

  • Calponia Harrisonfordi

  • Christian Science Monitor? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by InspectorGadget1964 ( 2439148 ) on Thursday July 12, 2012 @01:00AM (#40624803) Journal
    Isn't that an oxymoron?

    • more herb, less derp (Score:4, Informative)

      by Johann Lau ( 1040920 ) on Thursday July 12, 2012 @02:53AM (#40625251) Homepage Journal

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Christian_Science_Monitor [wikipedia.org]

      It's so easy and cheap to derp... but will you walk in the light of truth with me? Come on, you know you want to ^_^

      Eddy declared that the Monitor's mission should be "to injure no man, but to bless all mankind."

      [..]

      The paper has been known for avoiding sensationalism, producing a "distinctive brand of nonhysterical journalism". In 1997, the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, a publication critical of United States policy in the Middle East, praised the Monitor for its objective and informative coverage of Islam and the Middle East.

      Don't shit where you eat son, and respect your betters. Just an idea.

      • The light of truth? That makes me think of what happened on June 22nd, 1633 on the great hall of the convent of Santa Maria sopra Minerva.... If you don't know what I'm talking about, use google and you will find out that the Inquisition tribunal forced Galileo to kneel down and agree to their claim of earth being the center of the universe. He did it, not because the church was right, but because being a man of science, he understood that he was more important as a live man of science than as a dead martyr

  • Wait, Blood Sucking Parasites? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Eyeball97 ( 816684 ) on Thursday July 12, 2012 @01:54AM (#40625023)

    Surely they got it wrong, it should have been Island Records / Universal Music Group

  • "We believe that adults subsist for two to three weeks on the last feedings they had as juveniles and then die, hopefully (emph. mine) after they have reproduced,"

    Yes, because more parasites is exactly what we need now.

  • For a rastaman, having something that sucks blood named after him would be a slightly disturbing. And thats a understatement in manor proportions.

  • Wouldn`t Gnathia Madoffi be more accurate?
  • To 'Yam' is to eat for those of you not familiar with Jamaican Patois. Are there any other artists who have adopted similar monikers? I can think of a few: The Beatles - all of them named after insects. Sting - named after a viscous python and Meatloaf - named after a pie. The list is endless I'm sure...
  • Getting BSP's high since 1959.

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