A recently made Ph.D. recently dedicated one of his findings to the pop star that helped him get through graduate school.
The Ph.D. holder in question, entomologist Derek Hennen, recently named a millipede after singer-songwriter Taylor Swift as a way of expressing his gratitude for getting him through his academic career.
The millipede named after Swift is one of 17 new species of millipede discovered by Hennen and his team, accrding to Hennen's Twitter post.
A Swiftie Entomologist's Tribute
According to a report from the NPR, Hennen and his team discovered 17 new species of Twisted-Claw Millipedes from the Appalachia region in the eastern United States. One of these species, the Nannaria swiftae or Swift Twisted-Claw Millipede, is named after the popular singer-songwriter, Taylor Swift.
A true Swiftie, Hennen said that he named the millipede after Taylor as a way of saying "thank you" to her as her music got him through "some rough times" in graduate school. He mentioned he keeps some of her CDs in his car to listen to and cycle through, with his favorite songs being "New Romantics and "betty."
"I'm a big fan of Taylor's music, and I listened to her music a lot during graduate school," Hennen told HuffPost. "It brought me joy and helped me through some difficult times, so I wanted to show my appreciation. Since this new species is from Tennessee[,] and she lived in Tennessee for a while, I thought it was a nice fit."
The Swift Twisted-Claw Millipede was found at Fall Creek Falls State Park in Tennessee, which is a state that was part of the beginning of Taylor's career.
Hennen mentioned that he hopes Taylor finds the tribute as "a nice gesture," saying that he hopes she feels the same way as scientists like himself consider the naming of a species after themselves "a huge honor."
Swift has yet to comment on Hennen's tribute to her music.
Nannaria swiftae Details
The Nannaria swiftae or Swift Twisted-Claw millipede is a brown and orange millipede that was discovered by Hennen on some woods on the side of a road within Fall Creek Falls State Park in Tennessee.
Hennen said it may look similar to other twisted-claw millipedes, but the difference between it and others of its kind are the modified legs on the males, as depicted in Hennen's studies, which was published in the journal "ZooKeys."
The studies Hennen and his team wrote details their discoveries in the Appalachia region that necessitated a revision of the wilsoni species group in the millipede genus Nannaria. It was written by Jackson C. Means, Paul E. Marek, and Hennen himself.
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