The coolest thing about science is that it never ends.
Every day, people around the world wake up and go to work discovering novel things about our world. We're still finding new species! That's cool! Even cooler (or more ridiculous), however, is the fact that some of these creatures are named after famous people who had absolutely nothing to do with their discovery.
Enter Boston Bruins goaltender Tuukka Rask, who was recently told the news that a researcher in Africa has given his name to a new species of insect.
The Boston Globe's Carolyn Y. Johnson (h/t CBS Sports' Chris Peters) reports that Robert S. Copeland, an entomologist in Nairobi, Kenya, with New England roots, is using Rask's namesake to label a wasp recently discovered in the nation's Teita Hills.
Copeland has christened the species Thaumatodryinus tuukkaraski, writing in a to-be-published paper that the name is an ode to the Bruins goalie.
"This species is named after the acrobatic goaltender for the Finnish National ice hockey team and the Boston Bruins, whose glove hand is as tenacious as the raptorial fore tarsus of this dryinid ...
Read Full Article at Bleacher Report - NHL
Article written by Dan Carson
Scientist Names a Terrifying New Species of African Wasp After Tuukka Rask
February 24th, 2015 by Dan Carson Leave a reply »
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