450 million-year-old fossil named after Doctor Who icon Tom Baker

Tom Baker played the Fourth Doctor on Doctor Who, one of the character’s most iconic incarnations. Now, scientists he inspired are returning the favor.

Tom Baker, who played the Fourth Doctor on Doctor Who from 1974-81, has been given the honor of having a 450-million-year-old fossil named after him. Discovered by two Australian paleontologists, the fossil is officially called Gravicalymene bakeri. 

Now, you may be wondering: why Doctor Who and why Tom Baker? As it turns out, one of the scientists never watched Baker’s run as the Doctor, but did watch the show in the early 2000s and immediately fell in love with the title character. The other scientist was very much inspired by Tom Baker’s incarnation of the Doctor, and was inspired by Baker himself to explore the natural world and eventually made it a career.

Baker himself was ecstatic to hear the news, and wrote a letter to the scientists:

"I am delighted to be entitled at last. I hope the Who world will share my joy. Will I be allowed to tack “Fossil” on official correspondence? I hope the Who world will celebrate this fresh honour and will spread the news to those who live in remote places. Happy days to all the Who fans everywhere."

As for the fossil itself, it sort of reminds me of those creepy scarabs from the Mummy movies:

Fossil trilobite. (Photo by CM Dixon/Print Collector/Getty Images)

The Australian Museum describes these fossils as trilobites: “hard-shelled, segmented marine creatures that existed over 520 million years ago in the ancient seas.” Apparently, they went extinct before the time of dinosaurs, so they’re as ancient as can be. Its closest living relatives are prawns, crabs, spiders, scorpions and the like.

So when will trilobites show up in a Doctor Who episode? With this discovery, I hope it happens soon.

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h/t Forbes