Twitterati can't get over new species of Gibbon named after Luke Skywalker

Star Wars is one of the most successful movie franchises in the world which has given memorable dialogues, legendary characters and has garnered a huge fan following among audiences consisting of generations across the decades.

Luke Skywalker has been a widely followed character played by different actors over the years and the popularity is such that scientists impressed by the character decided to give the name to a new species of Gibbon which they discovered in south-west China.

The news of the Hoolock Gibbon named Skywalker was welcomed by Mark Hamill, an actor who has played the character previously.

The actor’s reaction to the news of the species swinging between trees being named after the iconic character was followed by tweeple giving their own hilarious take on it.

The Gibbon is not the first species to be named after a popular icons, as outgoing US president has a fish, lizard and parasite named after him among other things and a spider was recently named after a hat in Harry Potter.