Michael Jackson Lends Name to Prehistoric Hermit Crab, Mesoparapylocheles Michaeljacksoni

Crab walk, meet moon walk. In a new paper, an international team of scientists announced the discovery of a new family of prehistoric hermit crabs and made a novel tribute to Michael Jackson at the same time. The paper, published this month in German journal Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie, details the discovery of the first known species in the family. Its name? Mesoparapylocheles michaeljacksoni.

No, the crab doesn't dance or change color over time; the name was the result of a coincidence. The specimen was identified June 25, 2009, and the researchers were in a restaurant later that day when they saw on TV that the King of Pop had died.

"Michael Jackson's music will no doubt live a very long time and influence many people so I think the name is appropriate," said co-author Adiël Klompmaker, a Ph.D. candidate in Department of Geology at Kent State.

The crab, which lived in Northern Spain around 100 million years ago, was a surprising find. According to a statement released by Kent State, hermit crab fossils like the one the team found are "much rarer than those of true crabs...Today, less than a dozen of these [fossils] are known and a great deal of information concerning the evolution of this group remains undiscovered."

We might never have heard of the discovery if not for the MJ reference. Naming new species after celebrities isn't uncommon; keep clicking for 8 more examples:

Comments

[mgable85]

01:50 PM on 01/24/2012

I like how it says "100 million years ago" when the earth was created around 6,000 years ago....funny stuff.

[rsargerod]

02:52 PM on 01/24/2012

You need to go back to School to learn more about the Geology and the evolution of the Earth and the Universe - grow up and stop listening to your preacher's at sunday school.

[sigh-ence]

08:08 AM on 01/24/2012

The squarepants one...is that real? Lol

[Gnyek Morrish]

03:04 PM on 01/23/2012

and society gets more and more dumb....

[Allen Bouchard]

11:23 AM on 01/23/2012

"This unfortunately named beetle was named in by a German collector 1933, when Hitler first came to power."

LOL, grammar fail.

"It's customary not to change a species' name after it's been given one, so this nickname will have to stick."

It's not freakin' nickname.

[Allen Bouchard]

11:28 AM on 01/23/2012

Yep, I had my own grammar fail. There must be a law on the observation about how likely one is to make a grammar/spelling error when pointing out a grammar/spelling error.

[Allen Bouchard]

01:13 PM on 01/27/2012

4 days later and I found it: McKean's law, which is a special case of Skitt's law, says that, "[a]ny correction of the speech or writing of others will contain at least one grammatical, spelling, or typographical error."

http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Skitt%27s_Law

[Sheldon archer]

03:58 AM on 01/23/2012

If the crab uses its claws to bury itself in the sand, we can look forward to a new idol. People will be believing in sandy claws

[marco01]

03:10 AM on 01/23/2012

Few centuries down the road and people are going to be like what the helll where they thinking giving them those weird names!

[SanDiegoMJfans]

12:46 AM on 01/23/2012

the one true fact is that michael jackson will be remembered forever, and all of his haters will die off soon, but MJ's legacy wont, he will forever be the king of pop, and his haters will be a thing of the past! game over mj haters

[LMPE]

08:18 PM on 01/22/2012

100 million years ago? But didn't the big invisible guy whip everything up 6,000 years ago? At least that's what the 2,000-year-old litany of barely connected stories implies.

The species in the family Mesoparapylocheles michaeljacksoni should have Farrah Fawcett added to the end, since she died the same day as Michael Jackson.

[Shiree123]

07:19 PM on 01/22/2012

The comment about the crab changing color was not only not funny but so unnecessary and insensitive. He had vitiligo. It was proven at the autopsy. More people than you might think have this. Making light of this isn't helping at all. Shame on the author of that article.

[Blues008]

04:34 PM on 01/22/2012

That crab doesn't change color, it doesn't dance and it doesn't fancy children. It just famous. And when you're famous there will always be people acting vile toward you.

[Blues008]

04:30 PM on 01/22/2012

That crab doesn't change color, doesn,t nce and doesn't like underage people. Its just more famous than any of us. It might be smart enough to make more money than any of you.

I suppsoe that's the reason for the vile and repiuslvie comments.

[Blues008]

08:00 PM on 01/22/2012

I'd rather do that than type ''LOL funny'' at any lame jokes.

[DimpleH]

04:30 PM on 01/22/2012

Love it. RIP King of Pop.

[BoGardiner]

04:24 PM on 01/22/2012

I was pleased but uneasy to see HuffPost trying to enter this century when it comes to science. But it's not going to work if you find it necessary to inject racist humor. Because yeah, it's so hilarious to mock black people suffering with vitiligo.

[Blues008]

06:42 PM on 01/22/2012

They just can't help themselves.

[Vintage59]

02:32 PM on 01/22/2012

I love the logic behind naming it after MJ.

On another note from the slideshow. Maybe they don't rename a species once it exists but they can change the spelling a little without breaking precedent too badly. May I suggest they change the spelling of Anophthalmus hitleri to Anophth.anus hitleri?

[Murman]

05:02 PM on 01/22/2012

HA! that's a good one. But still, why would we change the name? Out of pity for the bug, I presume?

[Blues008]

02:26 PM on 01/22/2012

Who knew an article on crabs could attract so much pettiness