Aldisa vozinha: Red sea slug named after Cape Verde keeper
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- Biologist Jesus Ortea discovered a new species of small red mollusc in the Caribbean and named it Aldisa vozinha after Cape Verde's 40-year-old goalkeeper Vozinha.
- Ortea said the red colour of the species is "a reminder" of Vozinha's feat against Spain — nicknamed La Roja, meaning The Red One — in a goalless World Cup group-stage draw.
- Vozinha's Instagram following ballooned from 50,000 to 17.4 million during the World Cup, surpassing the follower count of NFL legend Tom Brady.
- Cape Verde became the second smallest nation ever to reach the World Cup finals and pushed holders Argentina to a 3-2 extra-time defeat in the last 32.
- Ortea, a professor emeritus at the University of Oviedo, was awarded a Medal of Merit by Cape Verde in 2023 for his marine biology work in the nation's waters.
- Ortea has a track record of merging football and taxonomy, previously naming a Costa Rica species after goalkeeper Keylor Navas and another after former Sporting Gijón striker Quini.
Why it matters: The naming locks Vozinha's World Cup breakout into permanent scientific record, and the deliberate red-on-red colour match between the slug and La Roja shows the honour was earned specifically for that shutout performance. Ortea's repeat pattern — Navas, Quini, now Vozinha — signals that viral football moments are now regularly being commemorated through species nomenclature.
