In addition to inspiring countless metal musicians the world over, Black Sabbath‘s Tony Iommi has now inspired the name of a newly discovered fossil.
The fossil, uncovered by a team of scientists in Russia, is named Drepanoistodus iommii. It’s part of the conodont species, an “extinct clade of marine vertebrates” from the Middle Ordovician geological period.
In the etymology section of the research paper, which was published via the European Journal of Taxonomy, the scientists write, “Named in honor of legendary guitarist Tony Iommi, founding member of heavy metal band Black Sabbath.”
Last month, another team of scientists announced that they’d named three newly discovered fossils after the band Gojira. Meanwhile, Metallica previously inspired the name of a deep-sea crustacean, and a venomous snake species was named after frontman James Hetfield.
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