While searching for original descriptions of Ophiocoma species I stumbled on the description of Ophiocoma punctata Forbes, 1841, species discovered by … a cod.
Forbes (1841) thankfully mentions the cod, who he terms a ‘great naturalist’ by acknowledging that ‘he (= the cod), too, carries his devotion to our dear science so far as occasionally to die for its sake with a new species in his stomach, probably with a view to its being described and figured by some competent authority’. However, Forbes is so fair to note that ‘doubtless his (= the cod’s) knowledge of the Ophiurae exceeds that of any biped’.
Makes you think about the ongoing overfishing and local extinction of cods, doesn’t it.
The original description of O. punctata can be found on pages 37-39 of Forbes (1841).
