Harrison Ford inspires name of new snake species

BANGKOK, Thailand — Indiana Jones may not want to have anything to do with snakes, but the actor that plays him, Harrison Ford, now has more attachments to the slithering creatures.

Researchers from Peru and the United States have named a new species of snake that was discovered in the Andes mountains in Peru last year Tachymenoides harrisonfordi — after the veteran actor, as published on the scientific journal Salamandra.

Coincidentally, Ford's first appearance as Indiana Jones 1981's "Raiders of the Lost Ark" was in a booby-trapped Peruvian temple (although that sequence was filmed in Hawaii).

The roughly 16-inch male snake spotted in Otishi National Park is pale yellowish-brown with scattered black blotches, giving it good camouflage, and has a black belly and a vertical streak over its copper-colored eye.

The researches cited Ford as inspiration due to his decades-long environmental advocacy, being a vice chair of nonprofit environmental organization Conservation International, and other eco-conscious work.

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This is not the first time Ford has inspired new species of critters, with an ant (Pheidole harrisonfordi) and a spider (Calponia harrisonfordi) also previously named after him, a fact that the actor jested about upon the latest discovery.

"These scientists keep naming critters after me, but it's always the ones that terrify children. I don’t understand. I spend my free time cross-stitching. I sing lullabies to my basil plants, so they won't fear the night," said Ford.

The actor, however, was still humbled by the discovery and used the opportunity to speak about ecological support, "It's a reminder that there’s still so much to learn about our wild world — and that humans are one small part of an impossibly vast biosphere."

The bullwhip-cracking Indiana Jones is famously terrified of snakes as immortalized in "Raiders of the Lost Ark" and referenced in future films.

Ford portrayed the fictional archaeologist once more in "Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny" released last June having previously announced it would be his last outing as the character.

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