a new species of bug eyed catfish with a suckermouth has been named after the star wars character greedo the catfish has been named by biologists at auburn university museum of natural history, in alabama, as peckoltia greedoi after the fictional alien bounty hunter the fish was discovered in the gurupi river in north central brazil and has large dark eyes, protruding birstles and a sucker mouth the new species of catfish peckoltia greedoi (left) has large eyes and a sucker mouth much like the bounty hunter greedo (right) in that featured briefly at the start of the first installment of the original star wars films  professor jonathan armbruster, a biologist and curator of fishes at the museum, said his colleagues chris hamilton noticed the resemblance to the alien killed by han solo in the first of the original star wars films yoda purpurata   a deep sea worm  han solo   an extinct species of trilobite found in southern china  aptostichus sarlaac   a species of trapdoor spider  tetramorium jedi   a madagascan ant  darthvaderum   an australian arboreal mite  polemistus chewbacca   a wasp  agathidium vaderi   a species of beetle  he said: 'chris looked at the specimen and said 'that looks like that guy from star wars' 'after a little prodding, i realised he was talking about greedo 'we then knew what the name had to be 'the peckoltia greedoi does bear a striking resemblance to greedo 'as a seven year old kid, i watched star wars in the theatre and it was a life changing experience for me 'i became a lifelong fan, and i now share that with my son 'greedo has always been a personal favourite of mine' greedo, a bug eyed green alien from the spaceport mos espa, was killed by han solo in a brief scene close to the start of star wars: episode iv a new hope it is not the first new species to be named after characters from the star wars films even though taxonomy is considered to be a serious business, those naming new species often have a lot of fun with the names in 2012 marine biologists named a purple deep sea worm yoda purpurata after the jedi knight from star wars   yoda professor jonathan armbruster (pictured above on the right with student carrie allison left) named the new species of catfish after his favourite character from the star wars films that he watched as a young boy  peckoltia greedoi (shown above) has bug eyes, bristles on its cheeks and a large sucker mouth  there is also a small parasite that lives on a burrowing crab known as albunione yoda a fossil trilobite which was found to belong to a new genus was given the name han solo by a palaeobiologist samuel turvey jason bong, director of the auburn university museum of natural hisotry also named a new species of trapdoor spider the aptostichus sarlaac, after the sarlacc monster that appears in the return of the jedi a species of ant in madagascar is called tetramorium jedi, while an entire genus of mite in australia is called darthvaderum there are also three species of wasp called polemistus chewbacca, polemistus vaderi and polemistus yoda professor armbuster himself has named more than 40 new species of fish peckoltia greedoi was first discovered in 1998 but had not been described as a new species until this year two other new species   peckoltia ephippiata and peckoltia lujani   were found alongside it he said: 'in biology, taxonomy is probably the most important science 'we have not even completed cataloging all of the species found locally, and in places like south america, it sometimes feels like we have barely started 'we need names to be able to discuss anything about the biology of the organisms, and it is the one branch of biology used by every biologist alive' the purple deep sea worm above was named yoda purpurata, after the jedi knight from the star wars films  the trapdoor spider above was named aptostichus sarlaac, after the sarlacc monster in return of the jedi 
auburn university brazil catfish peckoltia the gurupi river first
biologists from auburn university named the new catfish peckoltia greedoi  the fish has big eyes and a suckermouth just like the star wars character  the creature was first discovered in the gurupi river in north central brazil  it joins dozens of other new animals to be named after the star wars films 