Scientists Name New Acorn Worm as Yoda from Star Wars

Scientists have discovered three new species of acorn worms belonging to the family of Torquaratoridae, ten years later when the first species of the family was found.

These species were found 1.5 miles below the Atlantic Ocean. They are deep sea animals that were exposed completely on the sea floor.

A team of researchers found the new water acorn worms during the Ecosystems of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge (ECOMAR) research program to study the occurrence and distribution of the marine animals along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between Iceland and the Azores two years ago.

All three new species have been named and described in the paper published in the journal of Invertebrate Biology.

Interestingly, for a new reddish-purple acorn worm with large ear-like lips on each side of the head region, researchers have given the name of a popular Star Wars character - Yoda pupurata. Yoda was one of the most powerful Jedi masters with a floppy ear and pupurata is the Latin name for purple describing the color on the worm.

The second species, a white acorn worm, has been given the name Allapasus isidis after ROV Isis vessel which collected specimens from the ocean. The third species, a scarlet-orange acorn worm was named Tergivelum cinnabarinum after a red colored mineral called cinnabar in Latin.

"It's incredibly exciting to find new species and when we retrieved them back on board the ship everyone was amazed at the striking differences in color which led to nicknames such as 'northern pink', 'southern purple' and 'southern white' which captured their color as well as where on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge they were found," Monty Priede, Director of the University of Aberdeen's Oceanlab, UK, who led the research, said in a statement.

While Yoda species is just about the size of 4.7 to 7.4 inches (12-19 cm), the collected isidis speices is a male and is just about 5.1 inches (13 cm long), and the Cinnabarinum is about 10.2 inches long (12-26 cm).

Experts pointed out that these species give insight into the evolution and lifestyle of our ancestors as they are evolutionary links between vertebrates and invertebrates.

They are further planning to study the species' role in the deep sea ecosystem and find out how the early vertebrates living in deep sea without limbs or tail evolved to become sea species living on the sea floor.