The Star Trek name and characters have been thrown around in popular culture for years, but now scientists have locked onto them. A new group of spiders, part of the Roddenberryus genus (yes, that’s right), have been named Kirk, McCoy and Spock.
If you do not believe me, take a look at this article in the New York Times, “It’s a Spider, Not a Doctor, Captain or Vulcan.” The article quotes Dr. Bonaldo, a researcher at the Paraense Emílio Goeldi Museum in Brazil, who made this statement about the newly-named spiders:
They somewhat resemble Star Trek spaceships…Arachnologists have a long tradition of giving interesting scientific names for new genera and species, as most of us believe it is a great opportunity to acknowledge people or draw parallels with pop culture and local customs.
I expect Dr. McCoy would be yelling for weeks about this one.
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