Reports of Jon Snow’s direwolf’s death have been greatly exaggerated, a la Mark Twain. Turns out Ghost has not been prowling the confines of Winterfell, unseen by the camera, but has found his way to exotic Madagascar.
Not really. A team of biologists recently released a report in the European Journal of Taxonomy full of scientific gobbledygook that (I think) can be distilled down to this: after a pretty intensive study, these scientists identified a new species of wolf spider that lives on the beaches of Madagascar. It is all white. Geeks that they are (come on, they’re arachnologists), they named this new species after Game of Thrones’ Ghost. From the report:
The species name ‘ghost’ refers to the fully white appearance of this spider. Additional reference is made to the large white direwolf ‘Ghost’ in Game of Thrones, the first book in the series of fantasy novels A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin.
Wolf spiders are able hunters with excellent eyesight, much like direwolves. This particular wolf spider, which is of the genus Ocyale, is also particularly large. The comparison must have just called out to the scientists.
If there was ever a question about whether Game of Thrones has infiltrated every aspect of life, this should answer it. Somewhere, Varys is saying, “Wait a minute! I’m the spider!”
And it’s okay, because there is no way Westeros’ resident spider could ever be upstaged by the real thing.
Click here to read the whole report.
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