Researchers who found the fossilized remains of a newly discovered species of extinct giant turtle named it after a fictional being from Stephen King’s Dark Tower series.
Peltocephalus maturin is one of the largest species of freshwater turtles ever discovered. It lived between 40,000 and 9,000 years ago in the Brazilian Amazon, and had a carapace nearly two meters long, according to scientists at the Senckenberg Center for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment at the University of Tübingen in Germany. It dwarfs the two largest freshwater species currently in existence, the critically endangered Yangtze giant softshell turtle and the alligator snapping turtle, found in the southern U.S.
The remains were first uncovered by gold miners in a quarry in Brazil. Miriam Pacheco, one of the scientists who discovered it, told CBS News she is a big King fan, and suggested they name it after Maturin, from the author’s Dark Tower series and from “It.”
In the books, Maturin is one of the 12 “Guardians of the Beam,” interdimensional god-like beings that maintain order in the multiverse. Maturin is the oldest and wisest of them all, an infinitely benevolent force for good that in “It” advises Bill Denbrough and the Loser’s Club on how to defeat Pennywise. In the Dark Tower series, Maturin aids the main characters in their epic quest to defeat the powers of evil and reach the tower.
A poem about Maturin is repeated throughout the books as a kind of prayer, which starts with the lines: ”See the Turtle of enormous girth! / On his shell he holds the earth / His thought is slow but always kind; / He holds us all within his mind.”
While there are thousands of species named for fictional characters from sources including Greek mythology, Shakespeare, Mark Twain, J.R.R. Tolkien, “Dune,” “Game of Thrones,” DC and Marvel comics, Disney, Star Wars, Star Trek, “SpongeBob SquarePants” and Pokemon, this is believed to be the first species ever named for a King character.