Two entomologists have decided to name their new species recently discovered by Australian beetles Binburrum articuno, Binburrum many, and Binburrum zapdos, bringing the full circle of Pokémon back to what originally inspired the successful video game series.
In the world of scientific research, those who work hard to provide new discoveries end up calling them in the case of entomology at the Eastern University of New Mexico. Prof. Dr. Darren Pollock and PhD from the Australian National University. student Yun Hsiao, this meant immortalizing their latest beetle discoveries using the names of three of the most famous and powerful Pokémon birds.
“I met a Taiwanese entomology student named Yun Hsiao about 5 or 6 years ago,” Pollock told the University of Eastern Mexico press. in an interview last week. “When he first contacted me, it was very obvious that he knew his stuff (the beetle) and he was very excited about some of the same things I was.”
During his doctoral studies, Pollock discovered a new genus of beetle, which he went on to call “Binburrum. Recently, Hsiao discovered several different beetles of the same genus while collecting specimens for his own work. The new beetles were so distinct that the two decided to collaborate on documenting and naming them for a paper published in The Canadian Entomologist.
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“Choosing a name for a new species is not trivial; it must be different from any other species described, “Pollock said. “One way to ensure this is to make a name that no one would ever come up with.”
Continued:
Yun says that he was a young aspiring Pokémon trainer and, therefore, due to the rarity of the specimens of the three new species, he suggested naming them after the three legendary Pokémon of birds. Of course, I thought this was a great idea, and so the new species that were revealed to the world in 2020 are Binburrum articuno, Binburrum molteri and Binburrum snowdrift – all with Hsiao and Pollock as authors. We already have plans to describe several new species of this genus that have appeared since we finished the work, with probably more Pokémon names.
The big irony here is that Pokemon the series was inspired in part by collecting insects. Co-founder and Game Freak Pokemon director Satoshi Tajiri was famous in raising insects that his colleagues nicknamed him “Mr. Beetle. “Inspired by his childhood love for collecting insects and his subsequent passion for video games, Tajiri finally came up with the idea of a Game Boy game in which players could collect creatures and fight with each other. Six more years Late, Red Pokémon and Green were released.
Now life mimics art and the names of its creatures are used to better catalog real-world wildlife.