18 Mind-Blowing Facts You Didn't Know About Nelson Mandela

16. A Prehistoric Woodpecker Has Been Named After Mandela... As Has A Type Of Nuclear Particle

Unsurprisingly hundreds of streets and buildings in South Africa have been renamed after the nation's greatest son - but that is not the only thing that has been re-christened in Mandela's honour. A prehistoric woodpecker has been named as the "Australopicus nelsonmandelai", a nuclear particle has been dubbed the "Mandela particle" (although this "discovery" later turned out to be a mistake), while there is also an orchid bearing his surname, the "Paravanda Nelson Mandela". Among the other hundreds of things named after Mandela include a spider from the Ctenizidae family ("Stasimopus mandelai"), and of course The Special AKA's brilliant 1984 hit single "(Free) Nelson Mandela".