Jun 11 2012

Mary’s Monday Metazoan: The Flying Pigbutt Worm

Categories:

Organisms

by PZ Myers

In honor of a recently banned creationist pest, I give you…Chaetopterus pugaporcinus.

It seems appropriate, somehow.

(via The Featured Creature)

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23 comments

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1

Brownian

11 June 2012 at 11:02 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Is anyone else finding this all kinds of disturbing and hot at the same time?
2

PZ Myers

11 June 2012 at 11:04 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Should I have made it in honor of Brownian’s ass instead?
3

Brownian

11 June 2012 at 11:05 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Should I have made it in honor of Brownian’s ass instead?

You are such a poopyhead.
4

Woo_Monster, Sniffer of Starfarts

11 June 2012 at 11:11 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

To Raj!
5

Woo_Monster, Sniffer of Starfarts

11 June 2012 at 11:12 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Should I have made it in honor of Brownian’s ass instead?

Chaetopterus pugaporcinus would look nice in a pair of skinny jeans.
6

Gregory in Seattle

11 June 2012 at 11:28 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Also known as the “pigbutt worm.

I can think of several people who deserve this honor.
7

SallyStrange: bottom-feeding, work-shy peasant

12 June 2012 at 12:31 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Flying pigbutt worm is a great insult.

Also, band name.
8

Glen Davidson

12 June 2012 at 12:33 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Should be the DI’s (or CSC’s, more specifically) mascot.

It’s just so obviously designed, visually representing the soaring heights to which IDiocy will take us.

Glen Davidson
9

Menyambal --- Sambal's sockpuppet

12 June 2012 at 12:36 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

I think there may be a little different story on the name, there. It reminds me of “porcelain”—the word, not the substance.

According to my memory, the Spanish sailors/explorers who first found a cowrie shell thought the opening looked like a woman’s vulva (they’d been at sea a while). One of the Spanish terms for what we call “pussy” was “piggy”, or in Spanish, “porcellus”. Being sailors, they named the shell “porcellus”.

The decent folks back home used the name. Perhaps they assumed the name referred to the shiny white part of the cowrie shell, compared to white-skinned pigs, maybe, because when white pottery from China got to Europe, they called it “porcelain”. After all, it looked white and shiny like a cowrie shell.

So, when I looked at the picture and thought of vulva, then saw “porcinus”, I thought of porcelain.

It may just be the late hour, here, or the giddy rush of seeing the banhammer wielded so deftly.
10

Glen Davidson

12 June 2012 at 12:46 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

So, when I looked at the picture and thought of vulva, then saw “porcinus”, I thought of porcelain.

“Puga” is the important part of the name, meaning “buttocks” (or, “mainly buttocks”) in English. Buttocks of pig, presumably, not buttocks of vulva.

Not a bad story, butt (clever, I know, but it’s late here too) apparently not informative of this name.

Glen Davidson
11

Glen Davidson

12 June 2012 at 12:55 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Not knowing if the flying pigbutt specimens are adult or really large larvae, sequencing was used to assign genus.

Weird things indeed.

Glen Davidson
12

Menyambal --- Sambal's sockpuppet

12 June 2012 at 12:59 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Thanks, Glen. Now I can sleep.
13

amblebury

12 June 2012 at 1:55 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

I HAVE NO UNDERSTANDING WHATSOEVER OF ~~flying pigbutts~~ anything, really.
14

scottjordan

12 June 2012 at 4:08 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

In honor of a recently banned creationist pest…

I thought you were referring to Ken Ham until I checked the dungeon.
15

pentatomid

12 June 2012 at 5:56 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Menyambal,

Explanation of the scientific name:
The species is named pugaporcinus (based on the following Latin roots and suffix respectively: puga : rump; porcus : pig; and inus : having the likeness of) for its resemblance to the “rump of a pig.” Puga and porcus are nouns in opposition, resulting in a masculine specific epithet to agree in gender with Chaetopterus. For the sake of simplicity and euphony, an “a” was chosen as the connecting vowel instead of the usual “ato” or “i.”

From “Description and Relationships of Chaetopterus pugaporcinus, an Unusual Pelagic Polychaete (Annelida, Chaetopteridae)” by Osborn, Rouse, Goffredi, and Robinson (2007)
16

pentatomid

12 June 2012 at 5:57 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Oh, FFS, blockquote fail…
17

'Tis Himself

12 June 2012 at 8:42 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Should I have made it in honor of Brownian’s ass instead?

Some people will do anything to move up their place in the line.
18

Ogvorbis: Ignorant sycophantic magpie.

12 June 2012 at 9:35 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

But can you describe the colour of this to someone who is blind? NO!!1! You cannot. Therefore, undefinable gods!
19

ChasCPeterson

12 June 2012 at 9:47 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Wow, that’s weird. Maybe the second-weirdest polychaete I know.
(Myzostomatids are weirder:
ex. A
ex. 2)
20

Naked Bunny with a Whip

12 June 2012 at 10:39 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Jeez, PZ. What did chaetopterus pugaporcinus ever do to you?
21

pentatomid

12 June 2012 at 12:01 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Naked bunny

Chaetopterus pugaporcinus!

Gotta mind those capital letters! (Yeah, sorry, bit pedantic, but that’s the influence of my old zoology professor for ya)
22

ChasCPeterson

12 June 2012 at 3:55 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Chaetopterus pugaporcinus!

gotta mind those italics too
23

petzl20

12 June 2012 at 9:13 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

It’s nice and all, but I still won’t abandon Ampulex compressa as proof of God’s love and intelligent design.