• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Preserve Your Legacy by Naming a New Species

Posted on: Tuesday, 1 July 2008, 10:20 CDT

Jeff Goodhartz is now confident his family name will go on forever, thanks to a sea worm found in the Belize mangroves.

Goodhartz is single, he has no children, but he said a $5000 investment has given him peace of mind for his family legacy. That's because he bought naming rights for a sea worm, "goodhartzorum," from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

"This really jazzes me up," said the 55-year-old high school math teacher whose namesake is translucent with a flamboyant blue tuft. "It will be out there, the family name."

Scripps unveiled its name-a-species program earlier this year. This new twist on taxonomy is a way to raise research funds, and many groups are taking part. Now the debate is growing whether the practice lends itself to fake scientific discoveries, and signals a need for oversight.

"It is conceivable that someone could fabricate a new species in order to make money, if it were shown to be lucrative," said Andrew Polaszek, an entomologist at the Natural History Museum in London.

Taxonomy ranks among the world's oldest professions. It dates back to 18th century Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus, who made famous the classification system still used today. So far, about 1.8 million species of animals, plants, and microbes of the 30 million in existence have been named and identified.

In recent history, the discoverer gets to name the new organism, and many chose to name it after themselves, or family, colleagues, benefactors, and even celebrities. All living things have a two-part scientific name, usually in Latin. However, the naming of species has now gone to the auction block, or sold to donors who pay for research. The more evolved and rare the organism, the more money it tends to fetch.

Doug Yanega, an entomologist at the University of California, Riverside, wants a clearinghouse to review and publish animal names. Currently, species names are scattered across countless scientific journals - some with stronger peer review than others.

Global efforts are under way to catalog species, but compliance is voluntary. Last week the Census of Marine Life, which chronicles sea animals, confirmed 122,500 marine species names so far and 56,400 aliases - different names that were given to the same species.

Yanega is worried unethical people could see this as a moneymaking scheme. However, he says he has no problem with credible scientists selling naming rights to fund their work. 

"The potential for abuse is still too large," Yanega said. "It's too easy to do an end-around and exploit the system."

Most researchers say faking species names is a rare occurrence, but that could change if it became profitable.

Ellinor Michel, who heads the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature, which publishes rules on animal names, says the group does not have a position on the debate.
 
At Scripps, researchers run a background check in scientific journals and perform DNA tests to make sure it's unique, before the animal is ever put up for sale.

"We wouldn't offer a species name unless we're absolutely certain it's never been described before," said Scripps curator Greg Rouse, who had an Australian feather-duster worm - Pseudofabriciola rousei - named for him by a colleague.

Rouse discovered Goodhartz's featherworm. Two years ago, he found it in an underwater mangrove while snorkeling off the coast of Belize. The curator believes it’s not only a new species, but also part of a new genus of Belize featherworms.

Though the species will be called goodhartzorum, Rouse is still deciding the genus name.

The German nonprofit Biopat, is among the more successful conservation groups to sponsor species names. Since 1999, it has raised $700,000 for biodiversity research through the sale of more than 100 species ranging from frogs to beetles to spiders.

Several recent high-profile online auctions have put a spotlight on the moniker rights issue.

In 2005, the Wildlife Conservation Society raised $650,000 for a new monkey species in Bolivia. The primate was named after the highest bidder, which turned out to be Internet casino GoldenPalace.com. The website is known for all sorts of oddball purchases including a grilled cheese sandwich that the owner claimed bore the image of the Virgin Mary.

The monkey's scientific name - Callicebus aureipalatii - is Latin for "Golden Palace," but it's informally known as the "GoldenPalace.com Monkey."

In 2007, the Florida Museum of Natural History received $40,800 from an anonymous donor for a new Mexican butterfly species. The donor requested the insect be named after a deceased Ohio mother of three sons who fought in World War II.

Zoologist Jon Norenburg of the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History says taxonomy is already heavy in vanity, so he has nothing against the species name trade.  Yet, he warned someone's preferred name may not always pass scientific muster.

"Donors need to be aware that there's the possibility that their name could get sunk," he said. "It's kind of like financial investing. You need to ask, 'What's the fine print?'"

Scripps has sold a $5,000 Australian featherworm to a woman who planned to name it after her husband as an anniversary gift; cell phone maker Nokia Corp. bought a $10,000 spiny worm.

Nokia spokeswoman Jackie Evory said the company held a contest to Latinize the winning entry, which is also its slogan, "Connecting People."

Scripps donors get a framed photo of their namesake and a copy of the scientific paper that describes the species.  Still up for grabs is a $15,000 sea slug, a pair of bone-feeding worms for $25,000 each and a $50,000 rare hydrothermal vent worm.

Goodhartz is headed for scientific immortality despite never having tromped through tropical rain forests or braved perilous waters to hunt for undiscovered critters.

The suburban San Diego teacher says he understands there will always be people who disagree with his name purchase.

"I haven't earned this like a scientist," he said. But he added, "If it helps Scripps, how can that be bad?"

---

On the Net:

Scripps Institution of Oceanography

Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History

Source: redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports

More News in this Category