It sounds crazy, but a graduate student named a fish after Led Zeppelin.
In a paper published August 2010, researchers identified a new species of fish found in the Mekong River in Thailand and Vietnam.
Recently collected material from Thailand included a new species of Lepidocephalichthys … from the Mekong River drainage with highly distinctive sexually dimorphic pectoral fins.
According to numerous websites devoted to music (almost all without sources), an Auburn grad student named the new fish “Lepidocephalichthys zeppelini.” That unique pectoral fin described above reminded Justin C. Havird of the guitar that Jimmy Page played.
Once-upon-a-time, the Gibson website had quoted Havird (dead link). Google search filters work! The Florida Museum confirms the quote in a blog post from 01 September 2010.
“I’m a big Led Zeppelin fan, and I was listening to them while I was working on the fish,” Havird said. “The structure that makes this species unique just reminded me of the guitar that Jimmy Page played.”
Jimmy Page is known for his double-necked Gibson EDS-1275. Havird doesn’t say if it was the double-neck or his Les Paul.
I discovered the trivia because at least one site claims Havird named the fish on 16 October 2010. Which he did not!
Havird is lead author on that Zootaxa paper. Dr. Lawrence (Larry) Page is second; both were affiliated with the University of Florida when the paper reached the journal.
By 2010, when the Zootaxa published the paper, Havird was a PhD student at Auburn. When he did the research, he was at the University of Florida (2002-2008). Dr. Havird is now at the University of Texas and looks impish enough to have done this!
On 14 October 2010, the Florida Museum uploaded a video of Dr. Page discussing the Museum’s fish collection. “With more than 2.2 million specimens, it is one of the five largest collections in North America and one of the most important in the world.”
#scitech, #science, (269/365)
Wikimedia, Jim Summaria, CC BY-SA 3.0
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