Here's all the animals and plants that have been named after Sir David Attenborough

Sir David Attenborough has cemented his national treasure status even further – by having an ancient fossil named after him.

The 430-million-year-old fossil, which was found ‘frozen in time’, has been named Cascolus Ravitis – with Cascolus being the Latin equivalent to the Old English word for Attenborough.

As he was bestowed with the honour at the University of Leicester, Attenborough said: ‘The biggest compliment that a biologist or palaeontologist can pay to another one is to name a fossil in his honour and I take this as a very great compliment.’

But while it’s a prestigious honour, it’s far from the first time that a little bit of the natural world was named after one of its greatest promoters.

Take for example, the newly discovered species of frog which was recently discovered in the Andes Mountains of South America – and named the Pristimantis attenboroughi after Sir David.

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And then there’s the competition launched last year by the Natural Environment Research Council to name the Government’s £200 million polar research ship.

This is the very same competition that Boaty McBoatface eventually won – before it was announced that the ship would be called the RRS Sir David Attenborough.

Sir David’s influence also spreads to the plant world too – where a carnivorous pitcher plant was named ‘Nepenthes attenboroughii’ back in 2009.

Here’s the whole list of animals and plants named after Sir David Attenborough.

• Blakea attenboroughi – a plant discovered by American botanist Lou Jost in 2007.

• Ctenocheloides attenboroughi – a species of ghost shrimp discovered in 2010.

• Electrotettix attenboroughi – a species of extinct pygmy locus that is stored at the Ilinois Natural History Survey

• Hieracium attenboroughianum – a species of hawkweed found in the Brecon Beacons

• Prethopalpus attenboroughi – a tiny arachnid discovered in 2012

• Nepenthes attenboroughii – a carnivorous pitcher plant

• Pristimantis attenboroughi – a species of frog discovered in the Peruvian Andes in 2017

• Sir David’s long-beaked echidna – one of three echidna species living in New Guinea.

• Trigonopterus attenboroughi – a species of flightless weevil from Indonesia.

They’re all thoroughly deserved.