Happy Taxonomist Appreciation Day! Announcing Our First 5th Annual Pun Contest Winner!

Happy week of Taxonomist Appreciation Day! Years ago, California State University Dominguez Hills’s Associate Professor of Biology Terry McGlynn minted the day to call attention to the extraordinary and often-overlooked services taxonomists provide to all of us. Buzz Hoot Roar honors our systematists and taxonomists with a pun competition. For our fifth year, we had dozens of top-rate punsters and some of our all-time favorite puns. With the help of our judges, we selected five favorites, and will share one with you each day this week.

This year, we had three very special celebrity guest judges: Clinton Colmenares, Natalie Sopinka, and Neil McCoy (Learn more about them below.)

 

Drumroll, please… Announcing Friday’s winner! Pun and illustration by Cory Bryant (@Brantromyzon), a postdoctoral Great Lakes researcher who loves to communicate science through art and stories.

Thursday’s winner, Raymond Nakamura (@raymondsbrain), has got us covered:

Wednesday’s winner, Christina Madlinger (@C_Madlinger), empowers manta rays everywhere:

What did the stingray say when her husband was unfaithful?

Tuesday’s winner Mustelid tell you something! Way to go, Quinn Burrell (@Quinnidae)!

Here is Monday’s winner. Congratulations, Stephanie Januchowski-Hartley (@connectedwaters)!

Learn more about our awesome celebrity guest judges!

Natalie Sopinka is a communicator of science at Canadian Science Publishing. She is a fish biologist by training, lover of nachos by nature. Follow her @phish_doc for delightful fishy updates, shouldn’t-miss news, and the occasional fish Haiku.

Clinton Colmenares is mostly non-judgmental. He’s the chief science storyteller for Clemson University. He tweets from @ClemsonResearch  and has witty YT videos on the ClemsonUniversity Research and Innovation playlist. He accepts bourbon and barbecue bribes.

Neil McCoy is Hoot Emeritus and Chief Science Communications Officer in North Carolina State University’s Department of Applied Ecology. Whether he’s translating complicated scientific information into easily understandable graphics, designing websites for science, or simply making adorable images, Neil McCoy is a master of #scicomm and #sciart. Check him out @neilmccoy.