Mockturtle is asteroid #8889 and also known as 1994 OC. Mockturtle was discovered by Shimizu Yoshisada (清水 義定) and Urata Takeshi (浦田 武) at the Nachi-Katsuura Observatory. Mockturtle’s orbit is characterized by a period of revolution of 1 936 days, a semi-major axis of 3.04 Astronomical Units, an eccentricity of 0.14, and an inclination of 12.0 degrees.

Mockturtle is named after the character Mock Turtle from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Pete Carroll. The Mock Turtle is described as having a turtle’s shell and a turtle’s front flippers, but a cow’s head and a cow’s back legs and a cow’s tail. The Mock Turtle was once a real turtle. So he believes at least. The name Mock Turtle is actually taken from a mid-18th century English dish, the mock turtle soup, which uses calf’s head and calf’s foot to imitate a more expensive green turtle soup. Many of the characters, who Alice meets, have German translations of their names (this list serves mainly for linking to the other articles on asteroids of the same theme), so are Tweedledum and Tweedledee given the names Zwiddeldum and Zwiddeldei, to Humpty Dumpty is given the name Goggelmoggel, while Haigha and Hatta are named Hasa and Hutma (these are like abbreviations of hare and hatter, so that it easier to see here who is who), and the Jabberwock is named the Brabbelback. These translations of the names comprise a good deal of etymological work. The Mock Turtle is translated as Supperich, only hinting to the idea in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland that soup is made from the Mock Turtle. Although Alice only talks with the Mock Turtle, but neither cooks nor eats him. To be turned into soup is nevertheless the Mock Turtle’s fate and his turtle parts as well as his cattle part can be used for this.

Mockturtle indicates a development. This is in the core meaning an economic decline, so that the consumed food must become cheaper. But the protection of the environment and endangered species is another reason for not eating real turtles anymore, so Mockturtle also hints to the protection of endangered species. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland was published six years after Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species, so the mix of species in the Mock Turtle is certainly an allusion to evolution, which also includes the development of mammals from reptiles.