They Named a Dinosaur Gremlin Slobodorum: A Case Study in Pop-Culture Dinosaur Names

Naming a new species – whether prehistoric or not – can be a challenging endeavour. Over 1.2 million species of animals, plants, and bacteria presently call our planet home, a figure which doesn’t even consider the thousands of prehistoric creatures discovered by paleontologists on a regular basis. Given the need for novel and creative names, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that paleontologists use popular culture references to help inspire their choices. Take for example the newest genus of Ceratopsian dinosaur, named Gremlin Slobodorum after the diminutive creatures of folklore and film:

Reactions to Gremlin in the paleontological community have been mixed. Criticism has primarily stemmed from the absurdity of the use of Gremlin as a scientific name as opposed to an informal nickname. I’ll be the first to admit that Gremlin is a rather preposterous name for a dinosaur and one that seems designed to garner short-term attention from the community. To its detractors, Gremlin is a goofy name that at its absolute worst makes paleontology look less serious as a distinguished science. As if the bone wars didn’t already do that over 100 years ago!

Others have praised paleontologist Michael J. Ryan’s use of the iconic creatures for the ceratopsian, as Gremlin – a diminutive and stout quadruped – does admittedly bear a passing resemblance to its namesake. The case could also be made that an attention-grabbing name was necessary for Gremlin, as the fragmentary remains of the species are rather unimpressive. By bestowing Gremlin with such a unique title, Ryan has created a memorable genus worth discussing that would have otherwise been ignored.

It’s not as though Gremlin is unique in this regard. In 1974, paleoanthropologist Donald Johanson set the gold standard when he dubbed a specimen of the hominin Australopithecus afarensis “Lucy” after The Beatles song Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds. Despite being discovered over 50 years ago, Lucy remains one of the most important and memorable fossils ever discovered, due in part to the name imparted by Johanson. (Yes, Lucy being an early ancestor of humanity also helps; but tell me, can you recall a single Homo habilis specimen from memory? I highly doubt it!)

This doesn’t mean that naming a specimen after a pop culture icon is foolproof, however. In 2020, Argentinian paleontologists famously named a new species of Abelisaurid Thanos simonattoi after the Marvel comics/film character. Unlike Gremlin, the name Thanos has no obvious connection to the dinosaur – appearance or otherwise – and instead seems to have been an attempt to use Marvel’s popularity to garner attention. In this aspect, Thanos feels borderline disingenuous, a name without any lasting notability beyond its weak association to a character far more powerful than the small theropod.

Lucy and Thanos are far from the only examples. Some of my personal favourites include Attenborosaurus, a plesiosaur named after the legendary British presenter; Meraxes, a gigantic dinosaur named after one of Game of Thrones’ dragons; a trilobite named Han Solo (that’s not a joke – I almost wish it was!); and Bambiraptor, a dromaeosaur named after the one Disney movie my mother would never let me watch…

Clearly, pop-culture names for prehistoric species can be hit-or-miss. While there are many reasons these names fail, it seems as though the most successful names all have one thing in common: they fit the organism. Naming the fossil of a human relative Lucy makes sense, as does naming a giant predatory dinosaur after a dragon. We don’t need to suspend disbelief for it to work; it just naturally fits with the organism it describes. Naming one of the smallest Abelisaurids in the fossil record after Thanos – a character referred to as “the mad titan” – simply does not fit, leaving us pondering why the authors would make such a choice.

While it may not be pop-culture in the same way Thanos or Gremlin is, one convention that has caught on is naming species after local myths or history. Some of the most iconic names granted to extinct species, including the Oviraptorid Anzu wyliei and the pterosaur Quetzalcoatlus, have been based on figures of mythology. Others, such as the Oviraptorid Khaan, are rooted in local history of the area they were discovered in. Utilizing such conventions not only gives the animal a connection to the people and region from which it was discovered, but also provides a distinct and memorable name that doesn’t lose relevancy as time passes.

As more dinosaurs continue to get discovered, we can expect that dinosaur names like Gremlin will continue to be the norm. Maybe this isn’t such a bad thing, as many of the best named genera have resulted from this transition. Truthfully, if we look beyond rose-tinted glasses, we can see that some of the dinosaur names we hold reverence towards are nothing special. No offence to Triceratops, Allosaurus, and Stegosaurus, but if paleontologists named dinosaurs “three horned face,” “different lizard,” or “roofed lizard” in 2023, I’m sure we’d get on their case as much as the paleontologists behind Gremlin!

I do not take credit for any images found in this article. All images come from the respective artists in each caption.

Header image comes courtesy of @ddinodan on twitter

De Lazaro, Enrico. “New Herbivorous Dinosaur Species Identified in Canada.” Sci.News: Breaking Science News, 19 Dec. 2023, http://www.sci.news/paleontology/gremlin-slobodorum-12547.html.