Via washingtonpost.com:

Getting to name a species of animal gives scientists an opportunity to show off a little creativity and flair.

Jonathan Armbruster hit the pitch-perfect balance between pizzaz and staying true to the creature when he named a previously unidentified catfish after a “Star Wars” character. Just look at the side-by-side comparison of Greedo and the fish above; Armbruster couldn’t have been more on point.

The professor and fish curator for Auburn University Museum of Natural History named the fish Peckoltia greedoi, as described in an article published in ZooKeys, a peer-reviewed open access journal. Auburn’s David Werneke and Milton Tan were co-authors.

Armbruster holding holding a species of hardhead catfish in Papua New Guinea. (Armbruster/Auburn University) Armbruster holding holding a species of hardhead catfish in Papua New Guinea. (Armbruster/Auburn University)
In a video published by Auburn, Armbruster describes examining a specimen of the fish in his lab, which was first found in Brazil in 1998.

“We were trying to figure out what the characteristics on it were,” he said. “We share a lab with some arachnologists, and one of them looked at it and said, ‘You know, that looks like that guy from “Star Wars.”‘”

Armbruster and his colleagues figured out the arachnologist had been referring to Greedo. “As soon as we heard that, we knew what the species would be,” Armbruster said.

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