This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American
Naming a new species is a complicated task. There are entire tomes filled with regulations about proper taxonomic protocol, with biologists of various sorts navigating those rules in the hopes that their name will be both evocative and lasting. That's what makes a newly-named fossil beetle a bit of an oddity.
The Cretaceous insect, preserved in 99 million-year-old amber, is remarkable in its own right. As paleontologist Shûhei Yamamoto and colleagues note, Kekveus jason is now the oldest known member of featherwing beetles - tiny insects with fluffy, parachute-like hindwings. But what I want to highlight here is this arthropod's name.
Kekveus doesn't mean anything. As the paper describing the beetle states, the genus name "is a meaningless combination of letters." That's rather strange, especially in a field when genus names are often evocative. (Think Tyrannosaurus, the "tyrant lizard", or the "large-horned face" Megacerops.) But Yamamoto and colleagues took this unusual route because how quickly relationships between little-known prehistoric creatures can shift.
On supporting science journalism
If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.
The logic for the nonsense name, a Field Museum press release points out, is that sometimes little-understood fossil species are lumped into pre-existing genera as new analyses make new systematic connections. In these cases the genus name gets thrown in the taxonomic dustbin while the species name often persists. I can't agree with study co-author Vasily Grebennikov that genus names should never have meaning outside of honorifics, but I get the argument - if the new beetle turns out to be similar to a genus already known, the new genus name might have to be crossed out. Only time will tell if Kekveus stays on the books.
A close-up of Kekveus jason. Credit: Shuhei Yamamoto Field Museum
Name: Kekveus jason
Meaning: Kekveus is a string of letters with no meaning, while jason is a reference to the Greek mythical hero.
Age: Cretaceous, about 99 million years old.
Where in the world?: Hukawng Valley, Mynanmar.
What sort of organism?: A featherwing beetle.
How much of the organism’s is known?: A single beetle preserved in amber.
Reference:
Yamamoto, S., Grebennikov, V., Takahashi, Y. 2018. Kekveus jason gen. et sp. nov. from Cretaceous Burmese amber, the first extinct genus and the oldest named featherwing beetle (Coleoptera: Ptiliidae: Discheramocephalini). Cretaceous Research. doi: 10.1016/j.cretres.2018.05.016
More Paleo Profiles:
The Light-Footed Lizard The Maoming Cat Knight’s Egyptian Bat The La Luna Snake The Rio do Rasto Tooth Bob Weir's Otter Egypt's Canine Beast The Vastan Mine Tapir Pangu's Wing The Dawn Megamouth The Genga Lizard The Micro Lion The Mystery Titanosaur The Echo Hunter The Lo Hueco Titan The Three-Branched Cicada The Monster of Minden The Pig-Footed Bandicoot Hayden's Rattlesnake Demon The Evasive Ostrich Seer The Paradoxical Mega Shark The Tiny Beardogs The Armored Fish King North America's Pangolin The Invisible-Tusked Elephant The Mud Dragon The Spike-Toothed Salmon The Dream Coast Crocodile Buriol's Robber Ozimek's Flyer The Northern Naustoceratopsian The High Arctic Flyer The Tomatillo From the End of the World The Short-Faced Hyena The Mighty Traveler from Egg Mountain Keilhau's Ichthyosaur Mexico's Ancient Horned Face Mauricio Fernández's Plesiosaur New Zealand's Giant Dawn Penguin The Orange Sea Lion Mongolia's Ginkgo Cousin The Geni River Frog Isabel Berry's Dinosaur The Whale Caiman The Moab Lizard Yang Zhongjian's Lizard The Little Anubis The Shuangbai Lizard The Wyvern Dinosaur The "Need Helmet" Dinosaur The Jianianhua Dragon The Liaoning Hunter The Dalian Lizard Crompton's Aleodon Jenkins' Amphibian Serpent From the Chinle The Large Ancestor Lizard The Crown Tooth Currie's Alberta Hunter The Elephant Bird Mimic The Crested Thief The Hiding Hunter The Horned Lizard The Silk Bird The Sieve-Toothed Plesiosaur The Defenseless Snout Burian's Lizard The Small Whaitsiid The Beautiful Bird The Fierce Cat The Older One From Melksham The King of the Miocene Iberian Giraffes Miera's Lizard The Traveling Sloth The Sand Whale Shouten's Marsupial Lion The Rhaetian Lizard The Mountain Dolphin The Bryant's Shark The Rainbow Dinosaur Kootenay Bristle Worm The Masaoura Lizard The Chimera Spider The Chad Cat The Jinyun Shield The Fish From China The Sobrarbe Siren The Shortened Face The Climbing Dwarf Martin's Sea Turtle