Discoveries That Were Named After Pop Culture (For Good Reasons)
Turns out science nerds are watching the same shows as the rest of us.
![Discoveries That Were Named After Pop Culture (For Good Reasons)](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/pictofact/0/9/4/735094_320x180.jpg?v=4)
Being a scientist is probably really boring, with about 99 percent of your time spent staring at whiteboards and ironing your lab coat. Making an amazing new discovery is a rare, spectacular moment, is our point. So when a smart person sits down and thinks up a name for a thing nobody's ever seen before, it's a very big deal.
So it's all the more surprising when a scientist picks a modern-day pop culture reference as the textbook, forever name of their Important New Thing. But they do just that. For example:
![The Tritonia khaleesi, a boneless little sea slug with a pale, slender body, was named after Khaleesi of the Great Grass Sea. According to the scienti](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/pictofact/3/4/1/732341.jpg?v=2)
![A bee called the Chilicola charizard possesses similar facial features to Charizard from Pokemon. While other bees have yellow snouts, the species has](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/pictofact/3/4/2/732342.jpg?v=2)
![Bob Marley's song, High Tide Or Low Tide, made him namesakes with a pretty hairy spider known as the Desis bobmarley. Being one of the few that live](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/pictofact/3/4/0/732340.jpg?v=2)
![The Vibranium Fairy Wrasse got its name because its glowing purple scales reminded the researchers of the Black Panther's suit. Its scientific name,](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/pictofact/2/9/1/732291.jpg?v=2)
![The Eriovixia gryffindoris spider is named after one of the oldest characters in J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series. The odd-looking spider is shaped](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/pictofact/2/8/6/732286.jpg?v=2)
![Metallica gladly welcomed a new member of a different species, the Macrostylis metallicola, into their rock 'n' roll family. ETALICOLK MAICROSTYLIS ET](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/pictofact/2/8/8/732288.jpg?v=2)
![There's an ant with a spine So dragon-like that scientists called it the Pheidole drogon, after Drogon from Game of Thrones. The ant uses its defined](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/pictofact/2/9/2/732292.jpg?v=2)
![The Aleiodes shakirae is a parasitic wasp that tortures its host into gyrating its abdomen like a belly-dancing Shakira. When the wasp injects its egg](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/pictofact/2/8/9/732289.jpg?v=2)
![The Paramonovius nightking is a bee fly that's characteristically similar to a certain villain from Game of Thrones. Like the Night King, the insect o](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/pictofact/2/9/6/735296.jpg?v=2)
![A grad student named the Kaikaia gaga after Lady Gaga because it has crazy horns and a wacky fashion sense. VID IDE MUS USIC AINIR The treehopper](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/pictofact/2/8/1/732281.jpg?v=2)
![Chewbacca from Star Wars shares his moniker with a scaled, flightless beetle called the Trigonopterus chewbacca. The beetle has a bulky black body wit](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/pictofact/2/8/2/732282.jpg?v=2)
![A tiny, harmless organism discovered in a termite's gut was named after H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu monster. The Cthulhu macrofasciculumque has a mass o](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/pictofact/2/8/4/732284.jpg?v=2)
![A dwarf planet and its moon were nicknamed Xena and Gabrielle (after the warrior princess and her sidekick). The TV show names were never made off](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/pictofact/2/8/0/732280.jpg?v=2)
![A wrongly-classified pterosaur was renamed Targaryendraco wiedenrothi in honor of the Game of Thrones dragons. The flying reptile had two wings and tw](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/pictofact/2/8/3/732283.jpg?v=2)
![Scientists discovered a dinosaur fossil that looks just like Zuul, the Gatekeeper of Gozer, from 1984's Ghostbusters. The creature's spiked, sledgeham](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/pictofact/2/7/9/732279.jpg?v=2)