That Monty Python snake didn't work out. But thanks to his tongue-in-cheek love for lemurs--and his real-life interest in animal conservation--John Cleese has secured a place in the annals of science.
Cleese, who played a lemur-happy zookeeper in the 1997 film Fierce Creatures and hosted 1998 documentary Born to Be Wild: Operation Lemur with John Cleese, the comic now has a new species of the primate named after him.
Researches at Zurich University have dubbed a tiny, leaf-loving lemur in Madagascar the avahi cleesei.
The endangered, two-pound furry creature was discovered in the western region of the country in 1990 by the Zurich team, but wasn't named until now.
Cleese has yet to comment on the distinction, but word is he's pretty pleased.
"John Cleese is a lemur fancier," Urs Thalmann, who discovered the species with colleague Thomas Geissman, told the BBC. "I asked for his permission through his agent, and he was really excited."
"There's something bout watching an animal that puts you in contact with where we came from and what we're still a part of," Cleese told reporters during the filming of Fierce Creatures.
Lemurs are considered by most experts to be the most endangered of all primates. This particular species seems to ironically, share some traits with Cleese. In addition to being long-legged, it is known for enjoying "silly jumps," Thalmann told the Associated Press. Cleese famously played the Minister for Silly Walks in a classic Monty Python sketch.
Cleese and his fellow Pythons were previously honored by the geek set in 1985 via the Montypyhtonoides riversleighensis, a fossil snake (get it?). However, the critter was later renamed.
Celeb-based scientific monikers for animal species are nothing new. Charlie Chaplin (fly), Laurel and Hardy (cicadas), Abbott and Costello (booby), Simon and Garfunkel (trilobites), the Beatles (many, including trilobites), the Rolling Stones (trilobites), James Brown (mite), Elvis Presley (dinosaur), Orson Welles (spider), Steven Spielberg (a dinosaur), Harrison Ford (a spider and an ant), Marilyn Monroe (trilobite), Greta Garbo (wasp), Mark Knopfler (dinosaur), Metallica (wasp), the Grateful Dead (chironomid), Sting (tree frog), the Sex Pistols (trilobites), Frank Zappa (many, including a spider and fish) and even Milli Vanilli (a bee fly) have been so honored. (A comprehensive list can be found at the Website "Curiosities of Biological Nomenclature".) In March, Ellen DeGeneres tried to get a monkey named after her via an online auction, but she was outbid by the gambling Website GoldenPalace.com.
Cleese, meanwhile, has several films in the works, including Shrek 3, the Ben Affleck infidelity drama Man About Town and yet another animal-themed project--he'll voice Samuel the Sheep in the new Charlotte's Web 'toon, due out next year. (As reported by E! Online)
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