How A Species Gets A Name

Ze Frank was surprised with an invitation to join the advisory board of the Senkenberg Ocean Species Alliance (SOSA), based in Frankfurt, Germany. To find out if this was legit or just a prank, he went Germany, and surprise! He's on the advisory board of a research center that studies and names new species of mollusks. They must have realized that an American who makes fun of ocean creatures draws a lot of attention to them. So of course, Ze Frank repays the gesture by making fun of the institution, its scientists, mollusks in general, and Germany as a whole. In the meantime, we learn about how taxonomy works and how long it takes for a new species to be named. Some of the folks he roasted in this video came into the comments to show they are good sports. Of course they are, or they wouldn't have contacted Ze in the first place. The result is that today, a lot more people know what SOSA is and what they do, even if they never hear the end of a crayon's worth of argon or jiggly DNA.