Jonathan Armbruster, biological sciences professor and curator of fishes at the Auburn Museum of Natural History, recently named a new species of catfish after the “Star Wars” character Greedo featured in Episode IV.
Armbruster discovered Peckoltia greedoi on a visit to a Brazilian museum in 2004.
“Most of the stuff we actually find are things that somebody else has collected — sometimes hundreds of year ago even. But this was a group of specimen that were collected in 1998,” Armbruster said.
David Werneke, fish collection manager at the Auburn Museum of Natural History wrote the description characterizing the specimen. Werneke said Armbruster requested the specimen while making revisions for a study on the genus. That’s when he realized it was a new species.
Though a host of traits distinguish related species, the P. greedoi different in color patterns and tooth count, according to Werneke.
“It takes a good knowledge of the group you’re working on to know something more interesting that recognizes a new species or not,” Werneke said.
According to Werneke, it wasn’t until the team was brainstorming species names that Christopher Hamilton, graduate student in biological sciences, mentioned the catfish looked like Greedo.
“Once he said that, it kind of seemed like a perfect opportunity to name it after a character we all liked” Werneke said. “This seemed like a good way to get it out there. It was very descriptive in our minds of a character it looked like.”
Armbruster said he’s watched “Star Wars” since he was a child and still watches episodes with his son.
“Greedo has always been a fan favorite and it seems appropriate to have a species named after him,” Armbruster said.
According to Armbruster, to name a species, the researcher has to be able to thoroughly describe how it’s different from other related species, prepare analyses, write a description and have the paper peer reviewed and deemed acceptable for publication.
Milton Tan, graduate student under Armbruster, collected data on the physical measurements of the fish and edited the paper.
Tan said the paper on the specimen published on Feb. 2 in an open-access journal called “ZooKeys.”
“People are keying in on the fact that it’s named after Greedo,” Tan said. “New species get described all the time. In fact there are two other species in the same paper that are being described that aren’t getting any attention at all.”
According to Tan, the two other species in the paper, Peckoltia ephippiata and Peckoltia lujani, were personally captured by Armbruster and Werneke in the early 2000s.
“The huge media attention we weren’t expecting. I don’t mind that it’s gotten way more attention than some of the other species. I think any attention to bring to the scientific research and the importance of describing these species is really good to have.”
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