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A team of biologists recently discovered a new species of snail and named it after the punk rock legend Joe Strummer who was a member of the band Clash. The snail named after Joe Strummer was discovered in the hydrothermal vents in the Western parts of the Indian and Pacific oceans. Scientists named the deep sea snail “strummeri” and explained the inspiration behind the name saying that the snail resembles the punk rockers of the 70s.
The newly discovered species of snail named after Joe Strummer has a spiky look like the hair of the young people who listened to punk rock back when this musical genre appeared. The official name of the deep sea snail is Alviniconcha strummeri and belongs to the invertebrate family. These snails live are the size of a golf ball and live beneath the surface of the oceans, at approximately 2,000 meters.
The snail named after Joe Strummer is one of five species of snails that were recently discovered. The species were presented in the Journal Systematics and Biodiversity. One of the researchers who discovered the snails and wrote the paper, Shannon Johnson from Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute in California, said they named the snail after a punk rock star because the snails look like small versions of punkers because of their spikes, purple blood and the extreme environment in which the snails dwell.
Only one of the fives species of recently discovered snails has been named after Joe Strummer. The rest of the alviniconcha species were “baptized” after things like gastropod experts and research facilities. The researchers said they decided to name one of the snail species “strummeri” because they live in a very hot, acidic and sulphidic area of the hydrothermal vents in the Indo-Pacific oceans. Their name also comes from the way their spiky periostracum shells resemble the punk rock fashion of the 1970s.
Alviniconcha strummeri is not the only species named after a musician. Amaurotoma zappa was named after the famous experimental guitarist Frank Zappa. Other species named after famous musicians include: the isopod named after Freddie Mercury called cirolana mercury, jaggermyx naiad named after Rolling Stones lead singer Mick Jagger and a spider called myrmekiaphila neilyoungi, named after Neil Young.
Image Source: laughingsquid
