11 different participants independently suggested the name 'populi' during the online naming effort for the chiton.
Notes on verification
The figure of 11 independent suggestions is consistently reported across many outlets, but all appear to trace back to a single Senckenberg/Pensoft press release rather than independently verified counts, so corroboration is broad but not truly independent. [cascade flags: aggregator_dropped_primary_exists | tier=silver indep_score=0.8 clusters=5 claim_tier=notable | framework convergence=single on Original SOSA/Pensoft/EurekAlert press release announcing the naming of Ferreiraella populi (upstreams: Senckenberg Ocean Species Alliance (SOSA), Pensoft Publishers press release, Biodiversity Data Journal paper (Ocean Species Discoveries 28-30)) — publishers independent, evidence may not be | kind=attributed eligibility=medium (extractor: empirical/high)]
Sources
- This weird deep-sea creature was named by thousands of people online | ScienceDaily (seed:animals_and_wildlife)
- https://blog.pensoft.net/2026/02/06/the-internet-names-a-new-deep-sea-species-senckenberg-researchers-select-a-scientific-name-from-over-8000-suggestions/ (corroboration)
- https://www.discovermagazine.com/8-000-suggestions-later-a-newly-discovered-deep-sea-species-gets-its-name-48657 (corroboration)
- https://a-z-animals.com/articles/this-iron-toothed-sea-creature-found-18000-feet-down-has-a-crowdsourced-name/ (corroboration)
- https://scitechdaily.com/the-internet-just-named-a-brand-new-deep-sea-creature-found-nearly-3-miles-deep/ (corroboration)
- https://www.earth.com/animals/scientists-poll-the-internet-to-name-a-strange-new-deep-sea-creature-ferreiraella-populi/ (corroboration)