Retro Replay Retro Gaming History, Reviews & Emulation
Crash Bandicoot has a fossil named after him. And the name isn’t some lab nickname that stuck: the extinct animal is officially Crash bandicoot. Somewhere between the crates and the boss fights, our orange idiot made it into scientific classification.
The animal lived about 15 million years ago in what is now Australia. The PlayStation obviously arrived a little later. When researchers named the species in 2014, they borrowed Crash’s name for a much older member of the bandicoot family.
A small jaw with a big surprise
The story takes us to Riversleigh in northwestern Queensland, where fossils preserve an extraordinary slice of Australia’s past. Scientists had recovered the material years before the announcement. Identifying it and publishing the research came afterwards; this wasn’t a case of finding a bone on Monday and naming it after a game on Tuesday.
Nor was there a complete animal lying in the rock, conveniently wearing red trainers. The research paper describes a single upper-jaw fragment containing three molars. Those teeth carried enough detail for the team to recognise a new bandicoot genus and species.
That’s quite a second career for a character most of us associate with missed jumps. You can spend an evening watching Crash fall off the same ledge, then discover his name attached to an animal that lived millions of years before people existed.
Why Crash?
The name did more than give players something to grin at. In its announcement, the University of Queensland explained that this bandicoot turned up in a surprisingly early period. It was almost “crashing” into a stretch of time where researchers hadn’t expected it.
So the team, led by Kenny Travouillon, had a scientific surprise and a ready-made gaming reference. Crash became the genus, bandicoot the species name. Put them together and you get the joke without having to change a word.
The fossil wasn’t the cartoon character’s orange, upright body preserved in stone. It was a real extinct marsupial, represented by a little piece of jaw. Somehow, that makes the tribute better. Crash doesn’t need to look remotely convincing as an animal to have his name turn up in a serious palaeontology paper.
No extra life required. Just three very old teeth.
Sources
- University of Queensland: “Palaeontologists unearth rare 15-million-year-old bilby” (17 March 2014), for the age, naming explanation and confirmation that the fossils were found years before publication. The supplied shortlink leads here.
- Travouillon, Hand, Archer and Black: “Earliest modern bandicoot and bilby…”, Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 34(2), 2014, for the formal description and upper-jaw specimen.
- Retro Replay: Crash Bandicoot, for the original game’s packaging and screenshot.
More #RetroReplayFYI
For another strange crossover between games and the real world, read about Joe Rogan’s expensive Quake habit. Or follow a movie influence into a game with Indiana Jones and the beginnings of Zelda.
