In 2022, staff from Hanoi University purchased a selection of ’supergiant’ isopods

Among them was a species unknown to science at the time. National University of Singapore carcinologist Peter Ng and colleagues have now formally described the novel sea bug in a new paper.

As the head of the animal’s carapace resembles the iconic scifi helmet adorned by Star Wars’ infamous Darth Vader, Ng and team named the giant woodlice relative Bathynomus vaderi.