More than 8,000 name suggestions for the newly discovered chiton were submitted through social media during a public naming campaign.
Notes on verification
Confirmed by peer-reviewed publication (Biodiversity Data Journal) and multiple press outlets, though most coverage traces back to a single official press release from SOSA/Pensoft. [cascade flags: aggregator_dropped_primary_exists | tier=silver indep_score=0.9 clusters=4 claim_tier=notable | framework convergence=single on Official SOSA/Pensoft press release announcing the Ferreiraella populi naming competition, based on the underlying Biodiversity Data Journal publication (upstreams: Senckenberg Ocean Species Alliance (SOSA) press release, Pensoft Publishers press release, Biodiversity Data Journal article (SOSA et al. 2026, DOI: 10.3897/BDJ.14.e180491)) — publishers independent, evidence may not be | kind=empirical eligibility=high]
Sources
- This weird deep-sea creature was named by thousands of people online | ScienceDaily (seed:animals_and_wildlife)
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12905592/ (corroboration)
- 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)