Chinese scientists love Blackpink’s Jennie so much they named a fish after her
A popular K-pop star has found an unlikely place in the scientific record after researchers in China named a newly discovered fish species after her. Jennie Ruby Jane, from Blackpink, was “a constant source of inspiration” for the master’s student who discovered the tiny black-and-yellow fish – shor
By Ling Xin
A popular K-pop star has found an unlikely place in the scientific record after researchers in China named a newly discovered fish species after her.
Jennie Ruby Jane, from Blackpink, was “a constant source of inspiration” for the master’s student who discovered the tiny black-and-yellow fish – shorter than an average human fingernail – near southern China’s Pearl River estuary.
The fish, named Brachygobius jennie, is the first bumblebee goby found in China and could provide a model for studying the biological limits of vertebrate miniaturisation, according to a paper published last week by the peer-reviewed journal Zoosystematics and Evolution.
Tian Jiangyan, who discovered the fish and also led the study, said listening to Jennie’s songs had inspired her during her studies. Naming the species after the singer was her way of acknowledging Jennie’s “positive influence” on her work.
When Tian spotted the tiny fish during fieldwork in mangrove wetlands near the Pearl River estuary in April 2025, she initially thought they were babies, but their markings did not match any species known from the area.
Back in the lab, Tian and her colleagues from Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou and their collaborators took a closer look.
By comparing the fish’s physical features with the DNA of known species and consulting experts from Malaysia, where several species of bumblebee gobies are found, they concluded it was a bumblebee goby previously unknown to science.
At less than 9mm long, Brachygobius jennie is the smallest known member of its genus and may be the smallest fish ever recorded in China, according to the paper. It is also among the smallest known in the world.
Jennie’s bumblebee goby can be distinguished from other bumblebee gobies by its unique pattern of dark body bands, including a V-shaped marking behind the head.
Many questions remain about how animals function at such small sizes, the researchers wrote. By studying the fish’s anatomy and development, they hope to better understand what happens as vertebrates approach the lower limits of body size.
Jennie is not the first member of the globally popular South Korean girl group to inspire a scientific name. In 2023, researchers in Thailand named a rare and endangered flower after her bandmate Lisa, who was born in the country.
Earlier this year, European researchers named a 100 million-year-old insect preserved in Myanmar amber after the K-pop boy band Stray Kids, saying its unusual clawed forelegs resembled one of the group’s signature poses.
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