Iconic.
Just when you thought Sir David Attenborough couldn’t get any cooler, he only goes and gets a 100-million-year-old damselfly named after him.
That’s so David.
The creature was found recently in Burma inside a nugget of amber.
Scientists have dated the damselfly all the way back to the mid-Cretaceous period when dinosaurs still roamed the earth. And now it has a name.
Mesosticta davidattenboroughi (we know) was completely fossilised in the amber nugget meaning that it was even discovered with a set of wings.
According to researchers, they wanted to name the damselfly after Attenborough due to his dedication to studying dragonflies over the years.
Scientist Edmund Jarzembowski said that the broadcaster was an obvious choice.
“Sir David was delighted because he is not only interested in the story of amber, but also is a president of the British Dragonfly Society.”
Damselflies are similar to dragonflies visually but they differ in terms of their body size and the way they fold their wings.
But this damselfly isn’t the only creature to be named after good old David.
Over the years, he has also lended his name to a wingless beetle (trignopterus attenboroughii), a lizard (platys auras attenboroughii), and a load of plants (sirdavidia).
Attenborough first started broadcasting with the BBC back in the 1960s.
Ever since, he has delighted audiences around the world with his tales of wild life, sea creatures, and gas animal behaviour.
