'Scissor-handed' creature named after Johnny Depp

Eurasia News

The science world has paid homage to Johnny Depp by giving his name to an extinct creepy-crawly with “scissor hand-like” claws reminiscent of one of the Hollywood actor’s best-known roles.

Kooteninchela deppi, a 505-million-year-old distant ancestor of lobsters and scorpions, has been named for Depp’s famous portrayal of a gentle freak named Edward Scissorhands in the 1990 eponymous film, according to a study in the Journal of Palaeontology.

“When I first saw the pair of isolated claws in the fossil records of this species, I could not help but think of Edward Scissorhands,” researcher David Legg of Imperial College London said in a statement on Thursday.

The animal, about four centimeters (1.5 inches) long with millipede-like legs, lived in shallow seas off the coast of British Columbia in Canada during a much hotter period in Earth’s history.

It was probably a hunter or scavenger, using its claws with their elongated spines to capture prey or probe the sea floor for creatures in hiding.