The newest episode of The Walking Dead anthology spinoff series stars Anthony Edwards as a scientist who has given the “Walkers” their new moniker. He dubs them Homo Mortuus and believes that the dead who have returned to a form of life are actually another step of evolution and they are now the perfect apex predators.

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In Sunday’s episode of Tales of the Walking Dead titled “Amy/Dr. Everett,” Edwards plays one of the titular characters who has spent years tracking the “migration patterns” of the Homo Mortuus while also spending his time tracking how they behave. Over the time that he’s been doing the study, he’s come to really respect the zombies for what they are, especially because they don’t hurt each other and only kill for food. He derived the new name for the Walkers thanks to “Homo” being the Latin word for human and “Mortuus” being derived from the Latin from dead.

As part of Dr. Everett’s research, he has actually tagged three of the Homo Mortuus and dubbed them “Specimen Sunflower,” “Specimen Gamma,” and “Specimen 21.” The researcher actually tagged these specimens with transmitter collars and noticed that these particular zombies all have different traits that helped him learn more. The research takes place in a particular piece of land that was apparently sectioned off by man-made craters, which means that people are in the “dead zone” in very limited numbers.

It’s also clear that in this particular episode of Tales of the Walking Dead, Dr. Everett views human beings as depraved while the living dead are just the latest creation of nature. That’s until he comes across another survivor name Amy, who is played by Poppy Liu.

As has been the case with every star-studded episode of Tales of the Walking Dead, the story that introduces the title of Homo Mortuus is a one-off, and it likely won’t be a term that will expand to the franchise in general. However, it’s still an interesting new take on what has been happening in the world of The Walking Dead.

Tales of the Walking Dead airs on Sundays at 9:00 PM EST on AMC.

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