Tuesday, March 16, 2010

The amphibian Fedexia striegeli, found on FedEx land, lived during a time of dramatic climate change. Photograph: Mark A. Klingler/Carnegie Museum of Natural History According to an article from The Guardian: "Fossil hunters have named a 300m-year-old amphibian in honour of the courier service FedEx, after unearthing the creature on land owned by the company near a US airport. The remains of the ancient amphibian, which lived 70m years before the first dinosaurs, were recovered in 2004 from a slab of rock near Pittsburgh International Airport by Adam Striegel, an amateur fossil enthusiast on a geology field trip." All of this is wonderful, but when an amphibian is called after a "corporate sponsor" of some sort, one can only puzzle at the extent of how much branding has entered our world.... It is a good thing it was not found on a DHL land or anything similar, can you imagine an amphibian living with the guilt of being called DHLia striegeli?

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