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The sheer diversity of life in Earth’s ocean means that there’s no shortage of weird, wonderful and impressive species to marvel at. But sometimes science stumbles across something that may as well be from a different planet altogether.

After an expedition to South America turned up three new species of suckermouth armored catfish in 1998, it wasn’t until earlier this year that scientists from Alabama’s Auburn University Museum of Natural History were charged with describing and naming them. One specimen in particular was striking, and after one look at its sucker mouth, protruding bristles, and large, dark eyes, the Auburn biologists thought it was a dead ringer for Greedo of Rodia, the bug-eyed alien bounty hunter killed by Han Solo in the first of the original Star Wars films. The fish was duly named Peckoltia greedoi - a fitting name for a fish with a sci-fi look.

Even though taxonomy is supposed to be a serious business, those naming new species often have a lot of fun with the names and the fish isn’t the first new species to be named after characters from the Star Wars films. In 2012 marine biologists named a purple deep sea worm Yoda purpurata while an entire genus of mite in Australia is called Darthvaderum.