A fungus named after SpongeBob

Dennis Desjardin: A fungus named after SpongeBob

Dennis Desjardin named a newly identified mushroom species – a native of Borneo – Spongiforma squarepantsii.

A newly identified mushroom species named after SpongeBob Squarepants caught our eye and led EarthSky’s Emily Willingham to contact Dennis Desjardin, the scientist who discovered the genus. The mushroom, a native of Borneo, is Spongiforma squarepantsii, one of only two known members of the Spongiforma genus. Its sea-sponge shape inspired its name, which is probably better than any name motivated by its “vaguely fruity or strongly musty” odor. That descriptive comes courtesy of Dennis Desjardin, a professor at San Francisco State University, intrepid fungus hunter, discoverer of the Spongiforma genus, and one of the people to happily blame for naming a mushroom after a cartoon character.

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Really? Named after a cartoon character? Has people really become that dumbed down by media today? Even university scientists are being affected.

reply to post by balon0


wierd name for a new species. it looks kind of cool though. why would they call it that, it dosent look square or hang with a starfish

reply to post by balon0


No, it's just lack of imagination to create new names, I suffer from the same problem.

I guess you haven't heard about Sonic hedgehog, the protein, or its potential inhibitor, Robotnikinin. Or about Pikachurin.

reply to post by ArMaP


are those actualy real or just people taking advantage of wikipedia

reply to post by connorromanow


Those are real names.

Edit: some original names (like Pokemon) were replaced by different names, but some remained.

reply to post by ArMaP


thats kind of funny

Hahaha I've never watched that cartoon but I always appreciate when people de-mistify the "holy knowledge" and take things with a "joker" attitude.

Originally posted by balon0

Dennis Desjardin: A fungus named after SpongeBob

Dennis Desjardin named a newly identified mushroom species – a native of Borneo – Spongiforma squarepantsii.

A newly identified mushroom species named after SpongeBob Squarepants caught our eye and led EarthSky’s Emily Willingham to contact Dennis Desjardin, the scientist who discovered the genus. The mushroom, a native of Borneo, is Spongiforma squarepantsii, one of only two known members of the Spongiforma genus. Its sea-sponge shape inspired its name, which is probably better than any name motivated by its “vaguely fruity or strongly musty” odor. That descriptive comes courtesy of Dennis Desjardin, a professor at San Francisco State University, intrepid fungus hunter, discoverer of the Spongiforma genus, and one of the people to happily blame for naming a mushroom after a cartoon character.

Source

Really? Named after a cartoon character? Has people really become that dumbed down by media today? Even university scientists are being affected.

I think biologists just like to make their lives a little more humorous by giving things ridiculous names. On that note, there's a family of proteins called the Hedgehog proteins. One of them is called Sonic.

Great when test, i could remember it, buts i got admit thats is a cool name