Monday, February 17, 2025

New 14-Legged, Deep-Sea ‘Supergiant’ Crustacean Named After Major Star Wars Character

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Scientists have recognized a “supergiant” crustacean as a new species that lives in the deep waters off Southeast Asia and named it after infamous Star Wars villain Darth Vader.

Bathynomus vaderi can grow as big as 30cm/11.8 inches long and can weigh more than a kilo/2.2 pounds.

Fishermen trawling off the coast of Vietnam close to the Spratly Islands were the first to find the new crustacean species. Four of them were analyzed and the determination was made that it was indeed a new kind of isopod.

Peter Ng, a researcher from the National University of Singapore, told New Scientist:

“I am the biggest Star Wars fan in the team, as it’s my vintage. The first movie was in 1977, in my youth, and it was cool. But we all agree that the face of Bathynomus looks so much like Darth Vader that it just had to be named after the Sith Lord.”

The crustacean isopod’s name was chosen due to it looking like the mask of Darth Vader, along with the fact that they think it lives in the dark depths between 800m/2,625ft to 1200m/3,937ft.

Check out the research study here.

John Liang
John Lianghttps://www.deeperblue.com/
John Liang is the News Editor at DeeperBlue.com. He first got the diving bug while in High School in Cairo, Egypt, where he earned his PADI Open Water Diver certification in the Red Sea off the Sinai Peninsula. Since then, John has dived in a volcanic lake in Guatemala, among white-tipped sharks off the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica, and other places including a pool in Las Vegas helping to break the world record for the largest underwater press conference.

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