{"id":821,"date":"2004-01-21T20:06:47","date_gmt":"2004-01-22T00:06:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thewormbook.com\/hlog\/?p=821"},"modified":"2004-01-21T20:06:47","modified_gmt":"2004-01-22T00:06:47","slug":"exterminate-the-brutes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.thewormbook.com\/hlog\/?p=821","title":{"rendered":"Exterminate the brutes"},"content":{"rendered":"I was trying to sell a radio programme on the way that scientists are just vanishing from the world the other day, and ran up against an unexpected problem: my prospect thought that this was no bad thing, and they deserved it. Here<\/a>‘s some evidence that she may be right: a list of species named after Tolkein characters:
\nAletodon mellon<\/em> (Van Valen, 1978) (Paleocene mammal) “mellon,” Elvish for “friend,” was the password into Moria.
\nAncalagon <\/em>Conway Morris, 1977 (Cambrian priapulid) From a dragon from Tolkien.
\nAnkalagon <\/em>Van Valen, 1980 (Paleocene mesonychid mammal) Renamed from Ancalagon because it was preoccupied.
\nAnisonchus eowynae <\/em>Van Valen, 1978 (Paleocene mammal, synonym of A. athelas Van Valen 1978) for &Eacute;owyn, Princess of Rohan. “Athelas” was a Middle Earth healing plant.
\nBomburia <\/em>Van Valen, 1978 (Paleocene mammal) for Bombur.
\nBubogonia bombadili <\/em>and Protoselene bombadili <\/em>Van Valen, 1978) (Paleocene mammals) after Tom Bombadil.
\nClaenodon mumak <\/em>(Van Valen, 1978) (Paleocene mammal) after Mûmak, the Middle Earth elephant
\nDeltatherium durini <\/em>Van Valen, 1978 (Paleocene mammal) Several notable Dwarves were named Durin.
\nEarendil <\/em>Van Valen, 1978 (Paleocene mammal, synonym of Mimatuta Van Valen, 1978) for Eärendil, father of Elrond.
\nElachista amrodella, E. aredhella, E. caranthirella, E. curufinella, E. daeronella, E. diorella, E. finarfinella, E. gildorella, E. indisella, E. maglorella, E. miriella, E. turgonella<\/em> (Kaila 1999) (moths) Named after elves from Tolkien, respectively: Amrod (Amras’ twin), Aredhel (The White Lady of Gondolin), Caranthir, Curufin, Daeron (Chief loremaster of Doriath), Dior (King of Doriath), Finarfin (Noldor King in Aman), Gildor Inglorion (High-Elf of Eriador & Imladris), Indis, Maglor, Miriel, Turgon (Lord of Nevrast, then Gondolin). Kaila mentions that Elves “one after other sailed over the water to the West, and were later difficult to see with human eyes,” alluding to the studied moths, which are very inconspicuous and have spread to Nearctic areas. [Acta Zool. Fennica 211]
\nFimbrethil ambaronae <\/em>Van Valen, 1978 (Paleocene mammal, synonym of Oxyacodon agapetillus (Cope 1884)) Fimbrethil was an Ent-maiden; Ambaróna was a name for the Ents’ forest.
\nGollum <\/em>(shark)
\nGwaihiria Nauman <\/em>(diapriid wasp) Named for Gwaihir, Lord of the Eagles.
\nLitaletes ondolinde <\/em>Van Valen, 1978 (Paleocene mammal) for Ondolind&emul;, an Elven city.
\nMacrostyphlus frodo <\/em>Morrone, 1994 (Andean weevil)
\nMacrostyphlus gandalf <\/em>Morrone, 1994 (Andean weevil) [This and M. frodo are from American Museum Novitates 3104: 1-63.]
\nMimotricentes mirielae <\/em>Van Valen, 1978 (Paleocene mammal, synonym of Loxolophus hyattianus (Cope, 1885)) after Míriel, an Elf.
\nMimatuta morgoth <\/em>Van Valen, 1978 (Paleocene mammal) for the “dark enemy of the world.”
\nMimatuta minuial <\/em>Van Valen, 1978 (Paleocene mammal) “minuial” is Elvish for dawn’s twilight.
\nMithrandir <\/em>Van Valen, 1978 (Paleocene mammal) one of the names of the wizard Gandalf.
\nNiphredil radagasti <\/em>Van Valen, 1978 (Paleocene mammal, now in genus Paleotomus) Niphredil is a small Middle Earth flower. Radagast the Brown was a wizard.
\nOxyprimus galadrielae <\/em>Van Valen, 1978 (arctocyonid Paleocene mammal) for elf Lady Galadriel.
\nPericompsus bilbo <\/em>Erwin (carabid) for the title character of The Hobbit. So called because “it was short, fat, and had hairy feet.”
\nPlatymastus palantir <\/em>Van Valen, 1978 (Paleocene mammal) The palantír was a magical viewing stone.
\nProtungulatum gorgun <\/em>Van Valen, 1978 (Paleocene mammal) “gorgûn” is a term for Orcs.
\nSmeagol <\/em>Climo, 1980 (gastropod, family Smeagolidae) Another name for Gollum.
\nSmeagolia <\/em>Hedqvist, 1973 (pteromalid wasp)
\nSyconycteris hobbit <\/em>(moss-forest blossom bat)
\nThangorodrim thalion <\/em>Van Valen (Paleocene mammal, synonym of Oxyclaenus Cope 1884) Thangorodrim are the three tallest towers of Endor; Thalion is a character from Tolkien’s Silmarillion.
\nTinuviel <\/em>Van Valen (Paleocene mammal) for a most beautiful elf. The name is Elvish for nightingale.<\/blockquote>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was trying to sell a radio programme on the way that scientists are just vanishing from the world the other day, and ran up against an unexpected problem: my prospect thought that this was no bad thing, and they … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a> Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thewormbook.com\/hlog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thewormbook.com\/hlog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thewormbook.com\/hlog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thewormbook.com\/hlog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thewormbook.com\/hlog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=821"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.thewormbook.com\/hlog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thewormbook.com\/hlog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=821"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thewormbook.com\/hlog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=821"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thewormbook.com\/hlog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}