Want a shrimp named after you? Bid on it at eBay!

William Atkins
Tuesday, 24 March 2009 19:57

Science - Biology

According to the AMCS, the area, “… is an incredible part of our blue back yard, with some of the most spectacular and vulnerable marine wildlife on earth. Over 80% of the life there is found no-where else on earth.”

The South-west ocean area of Australia is the native habitat of Australian Fur Seals, blue whales, Southern Bluefin Tuna and, of course, this soon-to-be-named newly discovered species of shrimp.

The bidding for the naming rights to this shrimp begins at 9 a.m. Australian Eastern Daylight Standard Time on March 22, 2009 and end at 9 a.m. AEDST on April 1, 2009.

The name of the shrimp will be a traditional scientific name (or binomial nomenclature). The genus that the shrimp is included within is “Lebbeus,” so the first part of its name has already been determined to be Lebbeus.

However, the second part of its name (the species name) is up to the highest Ebay bidder. In other words, the genius of humans is “Homo” and the species is “sapiens,” so our full scientific name is Homo sapiens (translated from Latin as “wise human”)

If your name is David, for instance, and you want this name to be the shrimp’s species name, then the animal would be called “Lebbeus davidi.”

The name selected for the species name must be approved as determined by the “International Code of Zoological Nomenclature” guidelines, which was adopted by the International Union of Biological Sciences and maintained by International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature.

Page three concludes with the eBay auction website for this little shrimp.