eBay score: a new insect species

Sure, you can score vintage cars, one-of-a-kind guitar straps, even the odd linkurl:mass spectrometer;http://www.the-scientist.com/article/display/15309/ on linkurl:eBay.;http://www.the-scientist.com/article/display/15331/ But now it seems that a place in science history can also be purchased on the popular auction website. So learned entomologist linkurl:Richard Harrington,;http://www.rothamsted.bbsrc.ac.uk/Research/Centres/index.php?Centre=BCC vice president of the United Kingdom's Royal Entom

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Sure, you can score vintage cars, one-of-a-kind guitar straps, even the odd linkurl:mass spectrometer;http://www.the-scientist.com/article/display/15309/ on linkurl:eBay.;http://www.the-scientist.com/article/display/15331/ But now it seems that a place in science history can also be purchased on the popular auction website. So learned entomologist linkurl:Richard Harrington,;http://www.rothamsted.bbsrc.ac.uk/Research/Centres/index.php?Centre=BCC vice president of the United Kingdom's Royal Entomological Society, when he recently bought an insect encased in a chunk of pre-historic amber on the site. As the linkurl:BBC;http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7572052.stm reported, the insect turned out to be a previously undescribed linkurl:aphid;http://www.the-scientist.com/article/display/21057/ species that has been extinct for millions of years. Harrington, who is deputy science director at the centre for bioenergy and climate change at agricultural research organization Rothamsted Research, bought the pill-size bead of Balkan amber from a Lithuanian eBay user for 20 British pounds and sent it to renowned fossil aphid expert Ole Heie in Copenhagen. Heie determined that the insect, a member of the __Mindarus__ genus, was new to science and named the new species __Mindarus harringtoni__ after Harrington. While ecstatic about his find, Harrington toyed with the idea of giving the new species a more playful name. "I wanted the aphid to be named __Mindarus ebayi__," he said in a Rothamsted Research linkurl:statement,;http://www.rothamsted.ac.uk/corporate/PressReleases/PressReleases.php?PRID=48 "but flippant species names are frowned upon these days! I'm delighted to have a work of nature named after me - even if it is an extinct fossil!"
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  • Bob Grant

    From 2017 to 2022, Bob Grant was Editor in Chief of The Scientist, where he started in 2007 as a Staff Writer.
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