What do George Cuvier, Charles Darwin, Frank Zappa, Darth Vader, and The Three Stooges all have in common? They – and a vast number of other people, both real and fictional – are the eponymous inspiration for the taxonomic names of a species somewhere on the planet. The stories behind some of these naming choices are as fascinating as others are entertaining, while still more are simply comical or even downright absurd.
Charles Darwin’s Barnacle and David Bowie’s Spider
