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New Beetle Named After Charles Darwin and David Sedaris

sciencehabit writes "On Charles Darwin's 205th birthday, one beetle he found in Argentina is being recognized as a new species. An entomologist discovered the insect, with unusually saw-toothed antennae and a label reading 'C. Darwin', in a collection on loan from the Natural History Museum in London, where it had been misplaced for at least decades. The beetle represented a new species, Darwinilus sedarisi, named after Darwin and the writer David Sedaris, whose audiobooks the scientist listened to while preparing specimens."

25 of 35 comments (clear)

  1. David Sedaris? by CrankyFool · · Score: 3, Funny

    I'm ... really sure that Darwin did not listen to David Sedaris' audiobooks while categorizing species. Working out why this is so is left up to the student as an exercise.

    1. Re:David Sedaris? by quantaman · · Score: 1

      Well if Darwin wasn't a Sedaris fan he sure didn't know what he was missing.

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      I stole this Sig
    2. Re:David Sedaris? by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      All the same, with the boycott going on, I feel like the signal to noise ratio around here has increased. Hey, anybody who is irrationally emotional, doesn't know how to write, and is currently participating in a boycott, please stay away!

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      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    3. Re:David Sedaris? by CrankyFool · · Score: 1

      Holy cow, I got FP, and didn't even say something like "frist p0st!".

      Doing it wrong, as usual ...

    4. Re:David Sedaris? by tsa · · Score: 1

      Indeed. Finally the comments are on topic again.

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      -- Cheers!

    5. Re:David Sedaris? by ZeRu · · Score: 1

      Kinda unbelievable that no comments (yet) on this page are based around mocking creationists (as if they visit Slashdot, lol)
      Especially when you consider that even when Slashdot was in its better days, threads like this attracted trolls like shit attracted flies.

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    6. Re:David Sedaris? by flyneye · · Score: 1

      No, no its a NEW Beatle.
      John Lennon
      Paul McArtney
      Geo. Harrison
      Ringo Starr
      Charles Sedaris
      Actually, not very new, Yoko took off the disguise and VIOLA!

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    7. Re:David Sedaris? by flyneye · · Score: 1

      Lol and I landed on YOU.
      YHVH created everything in 6 relativity adjusted days and you cannot disprove it, nya, nya!

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      *Repent!Quit Your Job!Slack Off!The World Ends Tomorrow and You May Die!
    8. Re:David Sedaris? by grcumb · · Score: 1

      No, no its a NEW Beatle.
      John Lennon
      Paul McArtney
      Geo. Harrison
      Ringo Starr
      Charles Sedaris
      Actually, not very new, Yoko took off the disguise and VIOLA!

      Guitar, bass, guitar, drums... and... viola?!?

      ... Could work, I guess.

      --
      Crumb's Corollary: Never bring a knife to a bun fight.
  2. Thought this was Volkswagen by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    And here I was ready to go out and buy what would absolutely be the most awesome car ever created.

    Oh well.

    1. Re:Thought this was Volkswagen by tsa · · Score: 1

      But you spell that as Beatles.

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      -- Cheers!

  3. Darwin and Sedaris... by ackthpt · · Score: 1

    It's a beetle which evolves when you are engulfed in flames.

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    A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
  4. So now ... by PPH · · Score: 3, Insightful

    ... there are John, Paul, George, Ringo and Darwinilus Sedarisi.

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    Have gnu, will travel.
    1. Re:So now ... by rossdee · · Score: 2

      John and George are extinct

    2. Re:So now ... by cold+fjord · · Score: 2

      Well, the story did say new beetle....

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      much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
  5. The beetle is not a new species. by Sique · · Score: 2

    Actually, the London specimen of beetle was collected by Charles Darwin himself on his journey with the HMS Beagle. But it was never classified. As far as I know, there are only two known specimen, the one in the London Natural History Museum and the other in a collection in Berlin. It is not known if the beetle still lives in the bay Charles Darwin found him, or if the species has died out since.

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    .sig: Sique *sigh*
    1. Re:The beetle is not a new species. by dbarron · · Score: 1

      However, what is important (to taxonomists) is it has a new name.

  6. His new book by ThatsNotPudding · · Score: 1

    Me Talk Beetle Someday.

    1. Re:His new book by miller701 · · Score: 1

      Dress Your Family in Chitin and Denim

    2. Re:His new book by miller701 · · Score: 1

      Includes the famous short story "The Galapagos-land Diaries"

  7. How odd for Volkswagen ... by miller701 · · Score: 1

    I know they have special edition models from time to time, but these are kind of odd edition names for New Beetles.

    Why not something Germanic like Planck and Goethe editions?

  8. Ok Stupid by Impy+the+Impiuos+Imp · · Score: 1

    David Sedaris is a writer whom 60% of women on OkCupid claim to read and enjoy.

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  9. Poor Wallace by Bacon+Bits · · Score: 1

    This beetle really should have been named for Alfred Russel Wallace, who came up with the concept of natural selection (independent of Darwin) while studying beetles. He collected some 126,000 species in his time.

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    The road to tyranny has always been paved with claims of necessity.
  10. Re:Poor Wallace (correction) by Bacon+Bits · · Score: 1

    Sorry, that should be "specimens" not "species". It was "only" a few thousand new species.

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    The road to tyranny has always been paved with claims of necessity.
  11. Re: Poor Wallace (correction) by Bacon+Bits · · Score: 1

    Gee, I wonder if that's why I put the word only in quotes:

    It was "only" a few thousand new species.

    Oh, that's right, you intentionally removed them, thereby misquoting me. Then took me to task for failing to recognize how great his accomplishment was in a thread started by myself making the argument that he deserved recognition for his contributions.

    --
    The road to tyranny has always been paved with claims of necessity.