Curiously shaped crab joins the Dark Side, is named after Darth Vader

It's hard to get around saying it, but the force is definitely strong in this one.

The New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs this week announced that a 245 million-year-old fossil horseshoe crab that was discovered recently in Idaho has been named after an iconic character from science fantasy series Star Wars.

Photo: New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science

Image: New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science

The shape of the animal's head resembles the helmet worn by Darth Vader and the animal thus earned the name "Vaderlimulus."

Allan J. Lerner and Spencer G. Lucas of the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science and Marin Lockley of the University of Colorado's article on Vaderlimulus were published in the German paleontological journal Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie.

Lerner shared that the unusual body proportions might mean that the Vaderlimulus belongs to the extinct family of horseshoe crabs, Austrolimulidae.

The New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs reports that there are only four species of horseshoe crabs alive today, and their populations are decreasing. — Aya Tantiangco/BM, GMA News