It is a huge honor to have something named after you. From stars to species, getting your name on something is a really cool honor. However, is it as big of an honor when the creature bearing your name is kind of disturbing and gross? That’s a big question. A newly-discovered fish parasite has been named after the late reggae star Bob Marley. The species, Gnathia marleyi, is a tiny blood-sucking crustacean parasite akin to a land-borne tick. While Marley might have been more keen on getting a strain of marijuana named after him, that’s still pretty cool.
“I named this species, which is truly a natural wonder, after Marley because of my respect and admiration for Marley’s music,” said a statement issued by Paul Sikkel, an assistant professor of marine ecology at Arkansas State University. “Plus, this species is as uniquely Caribbean as was Marley.”
The gnathid is a parasitic crustacean that feeds on the blood of fish and lives in coral reefs in the shallow eastern Caribbean Sea rather than deeper in the warm water. Sikkel and his team described the parasite in the June 6 edition of the journal Zootaxia. Sikkel first observed the crustacean a decade ago and assumed it had already been discovered. It had not, and Sikkel and his team tracked the creature’s life span and behavior.
Tags: bob marley, parasite named after bob marley, fish parasite named for bob marley, species named for bob marley, parasites, Gnathia marleyi, gnathids, Arkansas State University, Paul Sikkel, Caribbean Sea, parasitic crustacean, crustacean parasite named for bob marley, musicians, unusual animals, Zootaxia