0
Name This Species—for a Fee
Purdue auctions rights on newly discovered bats, turtles to raise research cash
By Matt Cantor
|
Posted Dec 8, 08 11:44 AM CST
|
Share
(Newser)
–
Purdue University has some recently discovered bats and turtles to name, and you can be the one to do it—if you’re willing to pony up some cash, the Chicago Tribune reports. The university is auctioning off naming rights to a number of species, planning to use the money to support research into new species, a professor said.
“Money generated by someone who says, ‘I’m passionate about the environment, and I’d love to go down in history by having a species of organism named after me,’ that’s very important to our continued work,” he noted. Past bidders have included a gambling website that named a Bolivian monkey for $650,000; a fish-naming auction raised $2 million in Monaco.