Purdue to auction off naming rights... of a bat!

[Iason Ouabache]

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2008812090363

Searching for a truly one-of-a-kind holiday gift, one that could bestow a bit of immortality on a loved one or a friend?

If so, Purdue University has the goods: The school is auctioning the naming rights to seven newly discovered bats and two turtles. Winning bidders will be able to link for the ages a relative, friend -- or even themselves -- to an animal's scientific name.

The first of the nine auctions began Monday when the school put up for grabs the naming rights to a tiny gold and black insect-munching bat found in Central America.

The winning bidder will be announced just before Christmas, said John Bickham, a Purdue professor of forestry and natural resources who discovered or co-discovered the nine species.

Bickham expects the auctions to attract wide interest, with the chance to include a person's Latinized name in a new species' scientific name -- a tradition that dates to the mid-18th century.

"Unlike naming a building or something like that, this is much more permanent. This will last as long as we have our society," he said Monday.

Bickham said the first bat whose naming rights are up for auction is a member of a group of little yellow bats that live in tropical lowlands from Mexico south to Brazil. That flying mammal is the smallest bat found to date in Central America, weighing about 3 grams.

"We're talking about a bat that weighs less than a teaspoonful of water," said Bickham, who is the director of Purdue's Center for the Environment.

The nine species were found in recent years by Bickham and colleagues in remote areas of Mexico, Central America, South America and Africa. Details of the current auction can be found at -- http://purdue.edu/dp/environment/species.

Bickham said he expects significant bids, based on previous naming auctions.

Last year, Conservation International auctioned the naming rights to 10 new fish species during a gala "Blue Auction" in Monaco that raised more than $2 million for the Washington, D.C.-based conservation group. The highest winning bid was $500,000, for the honor of naming a new species of "walking" shark.

Bickham, who has studied the genetics of bats and other animals for nearly 30 years, said a portion of the money raised will go toward the laborious work needed to properly describe each of the seven bats and two turtles according to scientific protocol.

The remainder will help preserve the natural areas where each creature was found and educate the public about the importance of protecting the planet's wide variety of animals and plants.

Bickham said he doesn't think the fact that they could name a bat for someone would dissuade would-be bidders from bidding on the seven bats.

"Bats may be an acquired taste, but there are a lot of people very interested in them and very concerned about their welfare," he said. "Bats comprise one-quarter of all mammal species."

Fuck that star registry bullshit.  I want a bat named after me!!!

[Kai]

 

I hate this shit. Sure it raises awareness, but it defeats the purpose of the binomial in the first place.

[Golden Applesauce]

I hate this shit. Sure it raises awareness, but it defeats the purpose of the binomial in the first place.

Well, after he gets paid, all you have to do is show that they were really all subspecies of an already known species and make them get named properly.

[Nast]

Isn't this kind of thing in bad taste? I mean look what happened with the GoldenPalace.com Monkey...

[Kai]

I hate this shit. Sure it raises awareness, but it defeats the purpose of the binomial in the first place.

Well, after he gets paid, all you have to do is show that they were really all subspecies of an already known species and make them get named properly.

 

[fomenter]

are he names restricted? or does the money have the final say? it seems like a opportunity for someone with a sense of humor and money to screw with the whole naming process..  add funny/stupid names here..

[Kai]

Isn't this kind of thing in bad taste? I mean look what happened with the GoldenPalace.com Monkey...

Yeah, its considered pretty bad taste and style in the scientific community.

The best names have one of three things: A) something to do with the gestalt of the organism, preferably a character that is diagnostic or physically descriptive or B) having to do with the type location for the organism, good when the organism has only been found in one location or C) after a famous person, usually someone important in that particular field of biology, or not tasteless but less well looked upon, naming it after someone in your family.

Those are all fine and good acceptable and usually tasteful ways to name organisms. Draco hogwartzii is NOT. 

Maybe I should start a list of things that piss me off.

1) Using the word "darwinism".
2) Using "natural selection" outside the context of biology.
3) Using the phrase "survival of the fittest".
4) Pseudoscience.
5) Creationists.
6) Scientists who happen to be partisan hacks.
7) Naming species randomly or after bad fiction.
Racists
9) Sexists
10) Homophobes
11) Using bad science and hype to fill your coffers.
12) People who go to graduate school on a whim because they have nothing to do with their lives and don't even care about their research or coursework.
13) Fundamentalist athiests.

I'll add more later.

[Kai]

are he names restricted? or does the money have the final say? it seems like a opportunity for someone with a sense of humor and money to screw with the whole naming process..  add funny/stupid names here..

Yeah, because the media and corporations have turned science into something that is just that moronic enough that we need to add more idiocy to it.

And yes, there is something called the ICN, or the international code of nomeclature, and a committee that logs the species names and such. I WISH they would take a greater stand against this nonsense....Honestly, they only have control over the binomials though. They don't have any say in higher classification.

[fomenter]

the brownnoseasscrack turtle coming soon to a textbook in your school

[Kai]

the brownnoseasscrack turtle coming soon to a textbook in your school

No, see, they only code the latin names, not the common ones, and they don't allow anything vulgar, so thats right out.

[fomenter]

i don't get the naming process well enough to see how they can sell it and restrict it at the same time "lenocinor  fragor turtle".

[Kai]

i don't get the naming process well enough to see how they can sell it and restrict it at the same time "lenocinor  fragor turtle".

They can SELL it, but ultimately the name will have to be published and  recognized by the council in order for it to be valid.

For example, I could call the monarch butterfly Kai peedeedotcomi but no matter how much it got called that it wouldn't be a valid scientific name because the council decides that based on a set of rules in the ICN.

Essentially, the person who describes a species new to science is the one that gets to name it. Purdue is selling their "rights" to the naming but it still has to fall within the ICN rules.

[fomenter]

not as much lulz potential there, its better to leave these things to the scientists, and keep the naming scientific so it conveys information about the critter like its suppose to.

[Vene]

4) Pseudoscience.
5) Creationists.

Shouldn't 5 be labeled something like 4a or do they piss you off enough they merit their own category?

[LMNO]

12) People who go to graduate school on a whim because they have nothing to do with their lives and don't even care about their research or coursework.

Methinks this one only popped up just recently...