The Christian Science Monitor Weston Williams Staff | @westonwolf359 SCIENCE | FIRST LOOK Fossilized shrimp joins band of species named for naturalist David Attenborough Cascolus ravitis, a Latinized reference to the famed naturalist and BBC presenter David Attenborough, is the name given to a newly discovered ancient crustacean that was a precursor to modern shrimp, lobsters, and crabs. ! Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP/File " Fossilized shrimp joins band of species named for naturalist David... http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2017/0322/Fossilized-shrimp-j... 1 of 3 3/24/17, 3:20 PM
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Fossilized shrimp joins band of species named for naturalist … · 2017. 3. 22. · MARCH 22, 2017 — An ancient, fossilized crustacean buried in 430-million-year-old volcanic rock
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The Christian Science Monitor
Weston Williams
Staff | @westonwolf359
SCIENCE | FIRST LOOK
Fossilized shrimp joins band of speciesnamed for naturalist David Attenborough
Cascolus ravitis, a Latinized reference to the famed naturalist and BBC
presenter David Attenborough, is the name given to a newly discovered ancient
crustacean that was a precursor to modern shrimp, lobsters, and crabs.
!
Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP/File "
Fossilized shrimp joins band of species named for naturalist David... http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2017/0322/Fossilized-shrimp-j...
1 of 3 3/24/17, 3:20 PM
MARCH 22, 2017 — An ancient, fossilized crustacean buried in 430-million-
year-old volcanic rock has a brand-new namesake: Sir David Attenborough.
The tiny creature, which is less than a centimeter in length, has been named
Cascolus ravitis by researchers from Oxford, Leicester, Yale, and Imperial College
London. "Cascolus" is a Latin rendering of the Old English equivalent to the name
"Attenborough," and "ravitis" is derived in part from the Roman name for
Leicester, a reference to the University of Leicester in England, where Sir David
grew up. His father worked on the campus at the time as an administrator.
"The biggest compliment that a biologist or paleontologist can pay to another one
is to name a fossil in his honor and I take this as a very great compliment," Sir
David told the BBC.
Sir David is a famous naturalist and former BBC executive known for his work on
the BBC's famed "Life" and "Planet Earth" series, both of which broke new ground
in nature documentary filmmaking. His stature in the field has given him many
unusual namesakes over the years, including a long-beaked echidna from New
Guinea named Zaglossus attenboroughi, a wildflower named the Attenborough
Hawkweed, and even a polar research vessel named the RRS Sir David
Attenborough (despite an online poll that wanted to name the ship "Boaty
McBoatface").
"It is wonderful to be able to name a remarkable fossil from the United Kingdom in
honor of Sir David, who has done so much to promote the conservation of the
Earth's biodiversity," said Derek Briggs, a Yale professor of geology and geophysics
and a co-author of a paper on the crustacean.
The C. ravitis specimen was preserved when an underwater volcano covered the
creature in ash, freezing it in time "like an underwater Pompeii," said Dr. Briggs.
"Our analysis suggests that it is an early representative of the line leading
Fossilized shrimp joins band of species named for naturalist David... http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2017/0322/Fossilized-shrimp-j...