[Taxacom] Dishonorable people as species names

[Daniel Leo Gustafsson]

Really? Because exactly none of the species I have named after celebrities
or fictional characters have ever generate any publicity whatsoever. I
googled all three today:
Lunaceps rothkoi (after the painter Mark Rothko) -- only taxonomical and
biological hits on the first page
Columbicola asukae (after the fictional character Asuka Langley Soryuu) --
only taxonomical and biological hits on the first page
Saepocephalum stephenfryi (after the comedian &c Stephen Fry) -- taxonomy,
biology and some wikipedia entries that my friend wrote (and which have
since been copied into more specialized wikis)

No hits from newspapers, TV stations, science news blogs, or anything else
like that.

I have never attempted to spread the word about these in any way through
the media, and it seems no one else has either.

So in my experience, this is an issue in two parts: 1)  naming species
after people, 2) seeking publicity. I see absolutely nothing wrong with the
first part, and have not seen any meaningful argument that the second part
is actually detrimental to science.

Cheers,
Daniel



On Mon, Nov 11, 2019 at 5:45 PM Paul van Rijckevorsel via Taxacom <
taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu> wrote:

> From: "Daniel Leo Gustafsson via Taxacom" <taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu>
> Sent: Monday, November 11, 2019 9:13 AM
>
> > If we ignore the publicity-seeking media part
>
> ***
> Yes, naming species after celebrities does generate
> publicity. And this publicity will affect how the general
> public perceives taxonomy, as a science. The question
> is in how far the effect is negative, or positive. There are
> those who feel that any publicity is good publicity, but
> this will be too simplistic.
>
> Paul
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