You might have heard about these terrifying little oceanic buggers that use their relatively large claw to murder their prey with sheer force of sound, and now they have an appropriate name taken from one of the loudest bands of all time.
As NPR reports, the shrimp is being named Synalpheus pinkfloydi after the band who, legend has it, once played a concert so loud that it caused all of the fish in a nearby pond to drop dead. Seemingly inspired by this tactic, the shrimp snaps its oversized pincer shut so quickly that it generates up to 210 decibels, instantly killing any fish that get in its way.
The sound is louder than anything you’ll generally hear pumped out at a gig, yet comes from such a tiny creature, so it’s definitely earnt its title – although the ‘death by sound’ connection isn’t actually be the reason for its new name.
In fact, as head of research at Oxford University Museum of National History Dr. Sammy DeGrave explained to NPR, the inspiration was a lot simpler.
“The reference is to the line, ‘By the way, which one of you is Pink?’ from the song ‘Have A Cigar’,” DeGrave explained. “The story is when Pink Floyd first went to America, people thought one of the band members was actually named Pink. A reporter asked, ‘Which one of you is pink?” so that’s what stuck in our mind and that’s where [the name] came from.”
DeGrave also took a moment to debunk the possibility of the legendary fish massacre being true, adding that it “doesn’t really sound possible.”
