Star Trek gets another dubious distinction thanks to scientists

The names of three Star Trek original characters are now being used for a more scientific reason.

The names of James T. Kirk, Mr. Spock, and Dr. Leonard “Bones” McCoy are synonymous with Star Trek: The Original Series. You think of them, you think of the Enterprise and the 1966-1969 series that launched a mammoth franchise still going on today. What doesn’t come to mind when you hear these names are spiders, but Brazilian scientists have changed that.

According to Yahoo! Entertainment, three new species of spiders were discovered by Brazilian scientists from the Emilio Goeldi Paraense Museum. The arachnids belong to the Roddenberryus genus, which was also chosen by the scientists, and all bear the names of the three lead characters on the original Enterprise bridge.

The researchers were inspired by the original Star Trek when the spiders were first discovered.

The spiders were found in various locations in Latin America with both a female and male specimen of R.kirk being discovered in Costa Rica. A female version of R.spock was discovered in Campeche, Mexico while a male version of R.mccoy was located in Big California Sur, which is also in Mexico.

Co-authors Alexander Sánchez-Ruiz and Alexandre B. Bonaldo were inspired by Star Trek: The Original Series because of how the spiders’ anatomy bore some resemblance to various starships seen in the franchise. Gizmodo has three full-size pictures of the newly-named spiders so you can check them out for yourself.  I’m not really seeing spaceships, but one thing is for sure: clearly, those scientists were Star Trek fans

In an interview with New York Times, Bonaldo said the spiders “somewhat resemble Star Trek Spaceships” then added that “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.” That’s, as Mr. Spock would say “fascinating…” or creepy, depending on who you ask.