Science Imitates Art

It's easy sometimes to forget that the people that one associates with a particular cultural or professional context have their own lives outside of that — the mild shock of seeing one's professor at the mall or attending a ball game, for instance. Even the most dedicated professionals have hobbies and interests outside of their careers, which sometimes may bleed through into their work lives. Scientists, of course, are no exception.

Thus, many medical researchers, naturalists, astronomers or whatnot have books or movies or video games or other works that they enjoy. And sometimes, in the course of their work, they can come across new discoveries that, in some manner or another, call to mind these stories or the things within them. The end result of this is a surprisingly large and growing stable of animal species, astronomical objects, proteins, and other such entities permanently recorded in the annals of science with names based on characters and places from popular fiction.

The reason why most of the natural and non-astronomical examples tend to be insects, microorganisms, or extinct species is due to the fact that the grand majority of avians, mammals, and large reptiles have been catalogued and named for decades, if not centuries, leaving only a niche but ever-expanding catalogue of less identifiable scientific discoveries for pop culture to influence. The primary exception to this are fossils, as the spotty and incomplete nature of the fossil record means that large animals are still being discovered in the present day.

See also Neologism, for newly-minted or created words. Compare Defictionalization, for when a fictional product is made into a real item in the real world.

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Examples

Comic Books

• Marvel Comics:
  • The theropod dinosaur Thanos (known from a fragment of a neck vertebrae) is named after the Marvel comic character of the same name.
  • Gekko hulk is a gecko species named after The Incredible Hulk, because it's green, relatively large, and aggressive. Allodaposuchus hulki is a species of extinct stem-crocodilian named after Hulk for its strongly developed limb bones compared to other species of its genus, suggesting it was semi-terrestrial.
• Tintin: Asteroid 1683 Castafiore is named for diva Bianca Castafiore.

Comic Strips

• Calvin and Hobbes:
  • Two Martian rocks were named Calvin and Hobbes by NASA, as a reference to the Story Arc where the pair travelled to Mars in their little red wagon.
  • Two species of parasitic wasp in the genus Zagrammosoma were named after the pair (Z. hobbesi and Z. calvini). Z. hobbesi for its striped body, and Z. calvini for its bristly setae resembling Calvin's Anime Hair.
• The Far Side:
  • One comic depicts cavemen in a lecture hall, where the caveman professor is pointing to a slide of a stegosaur tail and stating that that end of the animal is called a thagomizer, "after the late Thag Simmons". The term afterwards came into use as an informal name for stegosaurian tails, including in formal museums, the Wikipedia page on the anatomical feature, and the occasional technical paper.
  • Strigiphilus garylarsoni is a type of owl louse named after Gary Larson, in honor of the author's popularization of obscure nature facts. In The Prehistory of the Far Side, Larson stated that he considered this to be a great honor.
    "Besides, I knew no one was going to write and ask to name a new species of swan after me. You have to grab these opportunities when they come along."

Films — Animation

• Bambi: The dromaeosaur Bambiraptor was named after the deer main character, due to its small size (however, this was only because the holotype fossil which gave the species its name was of a juvenile animal).
• My Neighbor Totoro: The titular character has a minor asteroid named after him.
• Over the Hedge: A cosmic phenomenon similar to the aurora borealis that occasionally lights up the northern hemisphere was nicknamed STEVE, after the name the animals give to the hedge. The name was chosen because, in the movie, the animals are a lot less scared of the giant hedge after naming it.

Films — Live-Action

• Alien: The fossil wasp Xenomorphia is named after the titular creatures, due to the fact they were discovered to have parasitized fly pupa, similar to the parasitoid life-cycle of the Xenomorph aliens (a parasitoid life-cycle is common amongst living wasp species as well).
• Avatar: Ikrandraco is a genus of pterosaur named after the Ikran, a dragon-like flying alien that the Na'vi use as a mount. The pterosaur has a similar crest on the end of its lower jaw as the fictional creature (unlike most crested pterosaurs, which either have a crest on top of the skull or on both upper and lower jaws).
• Ghostbusters (1984): Zuul is a species of ankylosaur named after one of the demonic hellhounds that serves Gozer, the dinosaur having a horned head that resembles the beast.
• Gamera: Two species of extinct freshwater turtles are named after the eponymous flying turtle monster. Sinemys gamera, which had large, wing-like projections from its shell, and Gamerabaena, from the Hell Creek Formation (so it would've coexisted with dinosaurs like Tyrannosaurus and Triceratops).
• Godzilla:
  • A 2017 study on marine iguanas identified five new subspecies, and one of these subspecies was named Amblyrhynchus cristatus godzilla, specifically as a reference to the incarnation from Godzilla (1998), which was a mutated iguana.
  • There is a genus of theropod dinosaur called Gojirasaurus. However, it doesn't resemble the actual Godzillasaurus from Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah, wasn't actually very large (it was large only for a theropod of the Triassic, but was dwarfed by many later species) and is possibly dubious (it may just be a large Coelophysis).
  • Scytodes kumonga is a species of Iranian spitting spider named after the spitting spider kaiju Kumonga. Godzilla: Singular Point makes a reference to this by giving Kumonga the scientific name Kumonga scytodes.
  • Remipedes are a group of centipede-like cave crustaceans closely related to insects. More than a third of the identified genera are named after various Godzilla kaiju. There's Godzilliognomus, Godzillius, Kumonga, Angirasu (Anguirus), and Pleomothra (Mothra).
  • Ramisyllis kingghidorahi is a species of polychaete worm named after Godzilla's Arch-Enemy, a three-headed, two-tailed dragon. It was given this name due to its highly branching body with many posterior ends.
  • Numerous other animals have names derived from Godzilla kaiju, such as Mecodema godzilla (a large ground beetle), Diplacodon gigan (an extinct ungulate named after Gigan), Mutotylaspis tripudium (a prehistoric hermit crab named after the MUTOs), and Agroeca angirasu (a spiny spider species named after Anguirus).
  • A variable star in the Sunburst galaxy is named after the big lizard himself, in reference to the star being the most luminous one currently known. In 2023, another such "monstrous" star was named Mothra.
• Spider-Man: Two species of spiders, Filistata maguirei and Pritha garfieldi, are named after Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield, the first two actors to play Spider-Man.
• Star Wars:
  • The Agathidium vaderi fungus beetle is named after Darth Vader — if you really squint your eyes, its shell looks like the infamous Sith's armor.
  • The trilobite species Han solo. Officially, the genus name Han comes from the fact it's a Chinese fossil, and solo is because it's the last known surviving member of the family Diplagnostidae, but the describer later admitted he was dared by his friends to scientifically name a species after a character from Star Wars.
  • The Skywalker hoolock gibbon (Hoolock tianxing) is a Bilingual Bonus example. In the official published paper, the translation given for "tianxing" is "heaven movement", and is stated to refer to the gibbon's brachiation in the rainforest canopy; however, a synonym for "heaven" is "sky" and for "movement" is "walking", a reference to Luke Skywalker, which is also reflected in the English name.

Literature

• The Adventures of Pinocchio: Species with long, horn- or nose-like projects have on occasion been named after the puppet himself. These include beetle Walckenaeria pinocchio, with a long single horn; the orchid Masdevallia pinocchio, whose flowers produce long, slender "spikes" from the top petal; the crab Oxypleurodon pinocchio, with a long upturned rostrum; and several others.
• Alice's Adventures in Wonderland: Multiple minor planets are named for characters from the story: 6042 Cheshirecat, 6735 Madhatter, and 6736 Marchare. The Jabberwocky from Through the Looking-Glass also has 7470 Jabberwock.
• Cthulhu Mythos:
  • Yogsothoth is a genus of protist named after the Outer God from the stories of H. P. Lovecraft (due to forming spherical colonies with many round scales that bear a resemblance to the description of Yog-Sothoth resembling many floating orbs).
  • Cthulhu is a genus of protist that dwells in the gut of termites that helps them digest wood, named due to its octopoid-like shape. It has a smaller close relative called Cthylla, named after the daughter of Cthulhu.
• Dinotopia: The series' author, James Gurney, had the theropod Torvosaurus gurneyi named after him.
• Don Quixote:
  • A species of the prehistoric horse Hipparion, Hipparion rocinantis, was named after Don Quixote's steed.
  • A prehistoric clam discovered in La Mancha was named Dulcineaia manchegana. Similarly, the modern sedge species Carex quixotiana was named so primarily due to being native to the area around La Mancha.
  • The beetle Ardistomis quixotei was named after the main character to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the story's publication, which fell around the time of its discovery.
  • Lohuecotitan pandafilandi is a giant sauropod from Spain named after Pandafilando, a giant that Don Quixote thinks is one of his enemies.
• Dracula: A species of giant extinct vampire bat, Desmodus draculae, is named after the title character (as the study naming it stated: "the greatest human vampire of folklore").
• Dune:
  • Synothele arrakis is a jumping spider named as a reference to its unusually blue eyes, which put its describers in mind of the most characteristic sign of melange addiction.
  • Shaihuludia is a genus of polychaetes — marine worms that mostly live buried in the seafloor sediment — named after the great sandworms (although, of course, it's got a much higher tolerance for water).
• Gulliver's Travels:
  • Lilliput has given its name to a number of tiny organisms, such as the cactus Blossfeldia liliputana (the smallest cactus known to exist, incidentally), the orchid Dryadella lilliputiana, the violet Viola lilliputana, the fly Meoneura lilliputensis, the beetles Anthobium liliputense and Hypothenemus liliputianus , and the mushroom Pluteus liliputianus.
  • Phobos has a number of craters named after characters and places in the story, due to Swift describing the moons of Mars there well before they were discovered.
• Harry Potter: The name of the pachycephalosaur Dracorex hogwartsia (which, note, is no longer a valid genus due to having been found to actually be the juvenile of Pachycephalosaurus) means "dragon king of Hogwarts".
• Heidi: Minor planet 2521 Heidi is named for the titular character.
• James Bond: 9007 James Bond is an asteroid named after the iconic spy himself.
• The Jungle Book: Bagheera kiplingi is a species of jumping spider, the genus name of which is a reference to the panther character from the book and the species name to the author, Rudyard Kipling. The spider species is also notable for being one of the only mostly herbivorous spider species.
• Jurassic Park: Michael Crichton had the dinosaur Crichtonpelta named in his honor.
• The Little Prince: Petit-Prince, the first asteroid moon to have been discovered with a ground-based telescope, was named in honor of Louis-Napoléon, Prince Imperial. However, its name was also intended to be an allusion to the book. In the words of its discoverers:
  Both princes were young and adventurous, and had little fear of danger. Both were of rather small stature. They both left the confines of their cozy little worlds (asteroid B612 for the Little Prince and Chislehurst for the Prince Imperial). They both then undertook long journeys to end up in Africa, whereupon they both meet rather violent deaths ... And in both cases they lay alone for one night each after "death" and then "returned" back home...
• Moby-Dick:
  • Not surprisingly, Melville's work has been of inspiration for a few prehistoric whale names. Albicetus oxymycterus — "sharp-nose white whale", named despite, obviously, only being known from fossil bones — is a very early sperm whale named after the great cetacean himself. Livyatan melvillei, a very large predatory sperm whale, was instead named in the author's honor.
  • Voeltzkowia mobydick is a type of skink named due to a number of its traits, namely its absent hindlimbs, flipper-like forelimbs, reduced eyes, and pigment-less skin, putting its discovers in mind of the white whale.
• Sherlock Holmes: 5048 Moriarty, 5049 Sherlock, and 5050 Doctorwatson are asteroids named for the series' three most iconic characters.
• A Song of Ice and Fire:
  • A 2014 study that described seven species of Laelius wasps named them after the great houses of Westeros — L. arryni, baratheoni, lannisteri, martelli, targaryeni, tullyi, and starki.
  • Prehistoric creatures named after the series include Targaryendraco, a pterosaur, and Meraxes, a carcharodontosaur theropod that, despite its large size, was not quite the biggest predator in its environment (it was overtopped by the even bigger Mapusaurus), similarly to how Meraxes the dragon was one of the biggest to ever live yet was still outsized by Balerion.
• The Time Machine: One genus of remipedes (centipede-like cave crustaceans) is named Morlockia, after cannibalistic post-human troglodytes of the book (because both live underground).
• Tolkien's Legendarium:
  • Two species of Brazilian spiders in the genus Ochyrocera are named after Tolkien's spider monsters, O. ungoliant and O. laracna, the latter being derived from Shelob's Portuguese name.
  • Gollum has inspired the names of a considerable number of organisms, most of them either cave- or bottom-dwellers:
    • Aenigmachanna gollum is a species of snakehead fish named in reference to being a member of a surface-dwelling group that adapted for life underground in (evolutionarily) recent times.
    • Galaxias gollumoides is a small, scaleless freshwater fish, which primarily inhabits areas of deep silt or algal growths in mountain streams.
    • Gollum is a genus of three species of small, slender sharks, sometimes referred to as gollumsharks, named after their preference for living as bottom-dwellers in deep, dark waters.
    • Gollumjapyx smeagol is a cave-dwelling insect from Spain that, like most obligate troglodytes, has pale, long-limbed features reminiscent of Gollum's.
    • Smeagol is a genus of small, pale slugs usually found living between rocks in seashore areas.
    • Tennesseellum gollum, a linyphiid spider, was named in reference to "the 'evil look' of the male of this species due to the large cheliceral tubercles".
  • The Silmarillion:
    • 385446 Manwë is a trans-Neptunian object named after the ruler of the Valar. Its satellite, Thorondor, is named after the chief of the Great Eagles that serve Manwë.
    • 174567 Varda is a trans-Neptunian object named after the Vala of the stars. Its satellite Ilmarë is named after Varda's handmaid.
    • The star WHL0137-LS, which at the time of its discovery in 2022 was the farthest star from Earth ever observed, was given the name Earendel, after Eärendil the Mariner and the Morning Star that he guides through the skies of Arda.
    • Yavanna is a Cretaceous tree fern named after the Vala who created plants and animals.
    • Ancalagon is a genus of Cambrian worms named after the ring of spines around their mouths, which their discoverers thought made them look reminiscent of dragons. Ancalagon also had a carnivorous mammal named after him, Ankalagon saurognathus. It was supposed to be Ancalagon, but the aforementioned worms forced a change.
    • A considerable number of the moths of the genus Elachista described by the Finnish entomologist Lauri Kalia have been named after elven characters from the story, such as Elachista aredhella, E. celegormella, E. diorella, E. turoella, and so on.
  • The Hobbit:
    • Breviceps bagginsi, common name Bilbo's rain frog, was named such because its discoverer had fond memories of reading the novel to his children. Bilbo also lent his name to the asteroid 2991 Bilbo.
    • Smaug is used as the name of a genus of spiny African lizards, which were named partly due to their resemblance to small armored dragons and partly because their range is centered around the Free State province of South Africa, which was Tolkien's birthplace. The dragon also lent his name to the Indian gecko Cnemaspis smaug.
    • Beorn is a genus of Cretaceous tardigrades — water bears, in common terms — named after the man who can turn into a bear.
  • The Lord of the Rings:
    • Gandalf has provided a name for both the flatworm genus Gandalfia and the crab genus Gandalfus.
    • Anthracosuchus balrogus is a genus of crocodile-like reptiles that received both its genus ("coal crocodile") and its species names as references to having first been discovered in the depths of a mine.

Live-Action TV

• The Big Bang Theory: The euglossine bee Euglossa Bazinga was named after Sheldon Cooper's catchphrase, "Bazinga", which means something similar to the expression "gotcha". It was named that because the biologists who discovered it initially misidentified it as another species.
• Kamen Rider: 12796 Kamenrider is an asteroid named for the series and its titular character(s).
• Game of Thrones: There is a species of sea slug named Marianina khaleesi after Daenerys Targaryen, who holds the title of "Khaleesi", because its back resembles her white-blonde hair when she wears it in elaborate braids.
• Monty Python: Each member has an asteroid named after them: 9617 Grahamchapman, 9618 Johncleese, 9619 Terrygilliam, 9620 Ericidle, 9621 Michaelpalin, and 9622 Terryjones.
• Star Trek:
  • Annuntidiogenes worfi, a hermit crab, and Synopeas klingunculum, a wasp, were named due to possessing wrinkled structures on their crania reminiscent of the Klingons' famous foreheads.
  • Star Trek: The Original Series:
    • Conus tribblei, a sea snail, is an indirect version. It was named after one of its discoverers' pet cat, who was in turn named after Star Trek's tribbles.
    • Paridris gorn, a wasp, was named after its compound eyes that resembled those of reptilian Gorns.
    • Ledella spocki is a clam whose valves put its describes in mind of Vulcan ears.
    • The astroid 2309 Mr. Spock is an indirect example; it was named for its discoverer's pet cat, which was named after the character.
  • Star Trek: The Next Generation:
    • Boeckaspis geordii, a trilobite, was named so due to its eye ridge's resemblance to Jordi's visor.
    • Bolianus is a genus of beetles with a long groove along their heads that resembles the characteristic ridge running down the Bolians' faces.
  • The NASA space shuttle OV-101 was originally going to be named Constitution, but, at the request of President Ford following hundreds of thousands of letters from Trekkies, it was named Enterprise after the flagship of the series. The shuttle is occasionally referenced by the franchise, implying that the Federation starship was named after the NASA spacecraft.

Mythology and religion

• The earliest example in zoology for this is the sarus crane (Antigone antigone), which was named in 1758 by Carl Linnaeus, the father of taxonomy, after the mythical princess Antigone of Troy^note not to be confused with the more famous Antigone of Thebes, who was turned into a stork by Hera after she claimed her hair was more beautiful than Hera's.

Music

• The Beatles:
  • One of the earliest instances of Australopithecus afarensis has been named Lucy because, when the fossils were discovered, the song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" was played in the expedition camp.
  • Besides the asteroid 8749 Beatles, which is named for the band itself, there are asteroids named after all four members: 4147 Lennon, 4148 McCartney, 4149 Harrison, and 4150 Starr.
• Elvis Presley: 17059 Elvis, a minor planet named for Elvis himself.
• Frank Zappa has been the inspiration for naming several different scientific discoveries, to the point that it is a section in his article on Wikipedia
• Green Day: The flowering plant species Macrocarpaea dies-viridis (common name "Green Day moon-gentian") was named in reference to the band. The specific name comes from the Latin words dies and viridis, meaning "day" and "green", respectively.
• Joy Division: Four species in the trilobite genus Bathyurina were named after the members of the band; Bathyurina curtisi (Ian Curtis), Bathyurina hooki (Peter Hook), Bathyurina morrisi (Stephen Morris), and Bathyruina sumneri (Bernard Sumner).
• Pink Floyd:
  • The pterosaur species Tupuxuara deliradamus has a specific name derived from the song "Shine on You Crazy Diamond". The Latin word delirus means "crazy" or "insane", and adamus (meaning "invincible") is where the word "diamond" comes from.
  • The Pink Floyd pistol shrimp, Synalpheus pinkfloydi, was named after the band due to its distinctive reddish-pink claw. An article about the species' discovery pointed out that the shrimp is "unlikely to occur on The Dark Side of the Moon due to lack of suitable habitat."
  • Pinkfloydia is a genus of long-jawed orb weaver spiders from Australia.
  • Cephalonomia pinkfloydi is a bethylid wasp from New Zealand.
• Porcupine Tree: The extinct brittle star Lapidaster hystricarboris is named after the band — Hystrix is a genus of porcupine, and arbor is Latin for "tree".
• Sex Pistols: Five species in the trilobite genus Arcticalymene were named for the band's members; Arcticalymene cooki (Paul Cook), Arcticalymene jonesi (Steve Jones), Arcticalymene matlocki (Glen Matlock), Arcticalymene rotteni (Johnny Rotten), and Arcticalymene viciousi (Sid Vicious).
• Sting: 601916 Sting is a minor planet in the Asteroid Belt named for the man himself.

Sports

• Former Arsenal boss Arsène Wenger has an asteroid named after him, due to the asteroid's discoverer being a proud Gooner.

Tabletop Games

• Forgotten Realms: Halystina umberlee is a deep-water snail named after the Faerûnian goddess of the oceans.
• Warhammer 40,000: Abaddon despoliator is a species of harvestman adorned with prominent keratinous spikes, which reminded its discoverers of how Abaddon the Despoiler is "typically portrayed adorned with spikes and various sharp things".

Theater

• La Boheme: Alcindoromycine, bohemamine, collinemycin, mimimycin, musettamycin, marcellomycin, and rudolphomycin are all anthracycline antibiotic agents named after the opera and its various characters.

Video Games

• Crash Bandicoot: A species of extinct bandicoots from the Miocene was given the scientific name Crash bandicoot.
• Factorio: The scorpion Neobuthus factorio was described by František Kovařík, the father of Michal Kovařík, the game's lead designer, who decided to name the new species after his son's game.
• Pokémon:
  • The dicynodont Bulbasaurus is an ambiguous case. Formally, it's named after the unusually pronounced, bulbous growths in the area around its nose. However, when asked on the matter, its discoverers stated that the name resemblance "may not be entirely coincidental".
  • A protein involved in the function of neural synapses is named pikachurin in reference to Pikachu's "lightning-fast moves".
  • Aerodactylus is a small pterosaur, closely related to Pterodactylus, named after Aerodactyl.
  • Three species of Binburrum beetles formally described together in 2020 were named after the Legendary Birds — B. articuno, B. zapdos, and B. moltres.
  • A subspecies of spider with the name treecko exists, after the Grass-Type Starter in the Third Generation; amusingly, it's part of the Rathalos genus, but it's unclear whether or not the nomenclature was inspired by Monster Hunter or not, as the taxonomic report claims it's an "arbitrary combination of letters". The same occasion saw the naming of two new Anyphaena spiders, A. grovyle and A. sceptile, as an extension of this trend.
  • Nocticola pheromosa is a cockroach species named after the Ultra Beast Pheromosa, due to the latter being an anthropomorphic roach.
• Sonic the Hedgehog: A group of proteins that control growth in embryos are referred to as the hedgehog proteins due to their removal causing the growth of spiky structures in subjects. The first two variants identified were named desert hedgehog and Indian hedgehog; the third is called Sonic hedgehog. Its inhibitor was then called robotnikinin.
• ULTRAKILL: One species of bacteriophage has been given the name "MinosPhrime" ("ph" for "phage" is a convention in naming phages), after the Super Boss of the first act. Initially requested name was "ULTRAKILL" outright, but that request was denied. This phage has an outstanding resistance to ethanol, which is deadly to the vast majority of phages.

Web Animation

• Battle for Dream Island: 10003 Caryhuang is an asteroid named after Cary Kaiming Huang, one of the co-creators.

Western Animation

• Futurama: The Ahaetulla farnsworthi, or "Farnsworth's vine snake", is a species of tree snake from the Western Ghats of India, named after Professor Hubert Farnsworth due to a physical resemblance and because he inspired one of the researchers to become a scientist.
• Spongebob Squarepants: The Spongiforma squarepantsii fungus was named after its fruiting body's resemblance to an orangish-yellowish sea sponge. The name was originally rejected by the Mycologia journal as being frivolous, but the fungus' describers were able to insist that, as its discoverers, they had the right to name it whatever they wished to.
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Ninjemys is a species of giant, horned stem-turtle from Australia, the scientific name of which translates to "ninja turtle", stated in its description to be "in allusion to that totally rad, fearsome foursome epitomizing shelled success".

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