The most popular convenience store in Texas now has a UT-Austin fossil named after it.
The fossil of a very ancient beaver, in the care of the UT Jackson School of Geosciences, has been given the formal Latin name of "Anchitheriomys buceei" or, in the scientific shorthand, 'A. buccei.'
It's named after Texas' own Buc-ee's chain whose signature mascot is Buc-ee the Beaver.
Steve May is a research associate at the UT Jackson School and the lead author of a scholarly paper that describes A. buceei and another fossilized beaver in the scientific journal "Palaeontologia Electronica" while giving an overview of ancient beaver occurrences along the Texas coast.
While driving down a highway in 2020, May spotted a Buc-ee's billboard that said "This is Beaver Country." He says the phrase brought to mind the Texas beaver fossils he had been studying at UT.
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