Chuchichäschtli: squid species named after tricky Swiss-German word
Researchers in Zurich have discovered fossils of a previously unknown species of squid from Ticino, which they have christened "Chuchichäschtli".
The name refers to the fossil, which is around 242 million years old, having lain in a “Chuchichäschtli” – a Swiss-German word for a cupboard, often a kitchen cupboard – for a long period before its significance was recognised. Chuchichäschtli is also a sort of shibboleth, testing a person’s pronunciation of Swiss German.
“At first we thought about naming the species after a colleague,” Christian Klug, professor of palaeontology at the University of Zurich (UZH), said on Thursday. “But the fossil is so unsightly that we didn’t want to do that to anyone.” Instead, they settled on naming the squid Ticinoteuthis chuchichaeschtli.
The fossils were found decades ago at the famous fossil site in Monte San Giorgio in canton Ticino, southern Switzerland. Since then, they have been stored in a box at the University of Zurich’s Institute of Palaeontology. Klug recently re-examined the collection together with Alexander Pohle. It was Pohle who identified the previously unknown cephalopod species.
It is not unusual to come across a new species in a collection, explained Klug. “There are plenty of new species waiting in drawers,” he said. “The species living today make up only about 1% of all species that have ever lived.”
The researchers presented the newly discovered species in the Swiss Journal of Palaeontology.
Adapted from German by DeepL/kc/ts
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