JONESBORO — While wading in the Caribbean Sea and studying marine life, Arkansas State University biology professor Paul Sikkel often listens to the music of Bob Marley.
It was fitting then, Sikkel said, to name a species of a parasitic crustacean that he discovered after the Jamaican reggae singer. He named the critter Gnathia marleyi.
“I figured I had only one shot in my life at naming something,” Sikkel said during a telephone interview from the U.S. Virgin Islands. “I wanted to be sure to make it special.”
Sikkel, who has been an assistant professor of biology at ASU for three years, first found the tiny species in the Caribbean waters in the U.S. Virgin Islands 10 years ago.
There were thousands of them — millimeter-long crustaceans that hide within coral rubble and attack fish, infesting them and feeding on their blood. The crustaceans can be compared with wood ticks or mosquitoes.
Sikkel thinks the species may transmit a malarialike disease that can weaken fishes’ immune systems.
Because they were so prevalent, Sikkel first thought they were not a new species. He called a colleague in South Africa about the crustaceans, who suggested that Sikkel study them further.
He captured scores, raised them and discovered that, in fact, he had found a new species.
Sikkel chronicled his research and wrote descriptions of the crustaceans to the National Science Foundation. He studied other known species of the genus and continued to watch as his captive crustaceans grew.
All the while, he listened to “I Shot the Sheriff,” “Stir It Up,” “No Woman, No Cry,” “Buffalo Soldier” and other Marley songs.
“His music made us happy and productive,” Sikkel said. “I thought it was a great tribute to a Caribbean icon.”
Marley died of melanoma in 1981.
The hardest part was convincing Jamaicans and the Rastafarian culture, to which Marley belonged, that naming a parasite after him was actually an honor, Sikkel said.
“It’s not really complimentary calling someone a ‘bloodsucking parasite,’” Sikkel said. “It could be considered an insult. But science defines ‘parasite’ totally different. They are the most successful species on the planet. They don’t kill their food — they only use parts to survive.”
There have been other musicians and authors who have had creatures named after them.
The preseucoila imallshookupis wasp was named for Elvis Presley in 2004. Dendropsophus stingi is a northern Colombian tree frog that honors the singer Sting.
Rolling Stones singer Mick Jagger has an ancient trilobite named for him — the aegrotocatellus jaggeri.
Michael Crichton, author of Jurassic Park, is honored with a dinosaur named the crichtonsaurus bohlini.
Even pop singer Beyonce’s backside merits a species. The musician, who sang “Bootylicious” as a tribute to her rear end while with the group Destiny’s Child, has a rare Australian horsefly named for her. The scaptia beyonceae was named after Beyonce in 2011 because, researchers said, the fly had a “big, gold butt.”
The concept of naming new species after singers, authors and other celebrities is part of a move by the scientific community to incorporate the arts.
Called STEAM — Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics — the concept is catching on.
In a March 11, 2010, editorial in the San Diego Union-Tribune, Harvey White, cofounder of telecommunications company Qualcomm, wrote that a “STEAM-based education system gives a country an advantage, or at least a level playing field, in the innovation race.
“We need to equip our technologists and leaders with the best training possible and add arts to STEM and put STEAM to work.”
Thomas Risch, the chairman of ASU’s environmental sciences department, said Sikkel’s naming of the crustacean will help further incorporate science and the arts. It also will be a good recruiting tool, he said.
“It’s great public relations for us,” Risch said. “I think this highlights ASU as an international researcher.
“The mistake is that science doesn’t reach the general public,” he said. “It doesn’t have to be that way. There are ways to introduce science, and one way is through popular cultural references.”
He said Sikkel is a good example of the merging of science and culture. Colleagues describe him as “laid-back” and “a surfer-dude type.”
Even Risch offers this: “You could pick him out easily in a lineup of scientists.
“But he is extremely driven and works very hard,” Risch said. “He’s helped put our marine biology program on the map, and we’re a landlocked state with no oceans nearby.”
Arkansas, Pages 13 on 07/22/2012