markscherz:

markscherz:

Meet the seven new frog species we just named after iconic Star Trek captains!

Artwork by A. Petzold, CC BY-ND 4.0

At the right time of year along rushing streams in the humid rainforests that stretch the length of Madagascar’s eastern and northern mountain ridges, otherworldly trills of piercing whistles can be heard.

Are they birds? Insects? Communicator beeps? Tricorder noises?

No, they’re little treefrogs!

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Boophis janewayae. Photo by M. Vences, CC BY-SA 4.0

Until recently, we thought all of the populations of these little brown frogs across the island were one widespread species, Boophis marojezensis, described in 1994. But genetics in the early 2000s and 2010s showed that there were several species here, not just one.

Now my colleagues and I have shown that they are in fact eight separate species, each with unique calls!

These whistling sounds reminded us so much of Star Trek sound effects that we decided to name the seven new species after Star Trek captains: Boophis kirki, B. picardi, B. janewayae, B. siskoi, B. pikei, B. archeri, and B. burnhamae.

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Photos of all new species described by Vences et al. 2024. CC BY-SA 4.0

I subtly and not-so-subtly built some Star Trek references into the paper, but probably the best one is this one:

’ Finding these frogs sometimes requires considerable trekking; pursuing strange new calls, to seek out new frogs in new forests; boldly going where no herpetologist has gone before.’

— Vences et al. 2024

There’s a real sense of scientific discovery and exploration here, which we think is in the spirit of Star Trek.

Of course, it doesn’t hurt that there are at least two Trekkies amongst the authors (including yours truly). As fans of Star Trek, we are also just pleased to dedicate these new species to the characters who have inspired and entertained us over the decades.

On a personal note, this marks a milestone for me, as it means I have now described over 100 frog species! I am very pleased that the 100th is Captain Janeway’s Bright-eyed Frog, Boophis janewayae (if you count them in order of appearance in the paper)—she is probably my favourite captain, and I really love Star Trek: Voyager.

You can read more about the discovery of these new species on my website! You can also read the Open Access paper published in Vertebrate Zoology here.

The media coverage on this has been absolutely bonkers. It might be our most successful piece ever in the media, although the Altmetrics don’t reflect it.

There’s a very good chance the frogs appear in a newspaper near you! If you find them in the wild, please send me a photo and/or physical copy of the paper!! I would be extremely grateful!

Also if you hear about it on the radio, please let me know when and where (which channel)!

lumidaub:

Weirdness about frogs and names and Starfleet

A while back, there was news about three tiny frog species, called mini ature, mini mum, and mini scule (delight all around). Being no expert in frogs at all but generally interested in cute, unusual animals I went to look up what madlads (g/n) came up with the names. Among them, I noticed, was one called Mark Scherz. Which made me Question Things™, since Scherz is a German word for jest or joke. Didn’t have time to look into it further though (and it’s not that far out a name anyway).

Then, just the other day, another set of frogs was introduced to the world, this time with names of Starfleet captains, named thusly because their calls supposedly resemble sound FX from Star Trek. This being even more up my alley because it’s cute, unusual animals AND Star Trek, I tried to find recordings and happened upon the names of the madlads (g/n) responsible this time - and again, Mark Scherz is among them.

This almost convinced that there is no such person and it’s an in-joke by herpetologists, a fake persona they attach to scientific work that is a bit tongue in cheek (to MARK it as a SCHERZ, if you will). After all, there’s a number of names used similarly in academia so there’s precedence for this type of shenanigans. We have an entire member of parliament in the German Bundestag who isn’t real.

And then, my feed here, on this webbed site tumblr dot com, of all places, saw fit to show me a post about the Starfleet froggies by none other than @markscherz and I don’t know which reality I am in anymore.

Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.