Not all historic discoveries are necessarily given dignified names.
A female Australopithecus afarensis from 3.2 million years ago was nicknamed Lucy after the Beatles’ “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds,” which was playing when her fossil skeleton was discovered in Ethiopia in 1974.
Some creative liberty is taken with Latin scientific names, too.
According to Stephen B. Heard’s “Charles Darwin’s Barnacle and David Bowie’s Spider: How Scientific Names Celebrate Adventurers, Heroes, and Even a Few Scoundrels,” a huntsman spider was named Heteropoda davidbowie after rock star David Bowie (1947-2016).
Skinny and long-legged, the arachnid is said to resemble Bowie with his orange hair.