As a musician, it’s undoubtedly quite an honour to receive a big-name award such as a Grammy or an ARIA. However, for some, such an honour might be second only to having a prehistoric fossil named after you, which is exactly what’s happened to US metal act Between The Buried And Me.
As Revolver Mag reports, US scientists recently discovered a new species of a brittle star fossil, naming it after the progressive metal act Between The Buried And Me.
Named ‘Amphilimna intersepultosetme’, which is a direct Latin translation of the group’s name, the fossil itself is a slender-armed cousin of the starfish, and was discovered in the US state of South Carolina.
Found by paleontologists Drs John Jagt, Lea Numberger-Thuy and Ben Thuy from the Natural History Museum in Luxembourg, Revolver Mag notes that Ben Thuy was also involved in a discovery earlier this year which was named after Swedish metal act Arch Enemy.
Between The Buried And Me bassist Dan Briggs expressed his excitement as his band being the inspiration for the name of this newly-found specimen. “We are honored to have been thought of alongside this little magical creature who swam in the waters of the Carolinas many years before us and we’ll be linked together for many years to come,” he explained.
Of course, this is nowhere near the first time that scientists have turned to music while naming their discoveries, with Henry Rollins, Cannibal Corpse, and even Motörhead’s Lemmy being the inspiration for new finds.
In fact, when scientists discovered a species of shrimp that uses its relatively large claw to murder their prey with sheer force of sound, they decided to name it after one of the loudest bands of all time, Pink Floyd.
Dubbed the Synalpheus pinkfloydi, the shrimp is capable of snapping its oversized pincer shut so quickly that it generates up to 210 decibels, killing all fish nearby. The name was reportedly inspired by an urban legend which claimed that Pink Floyd once played a gig so loud that it caused all of the fish in a nearby pond to drop dead.
While it might not be true, we’re excited to see if any Aussie bands might be next in line when it comes to intriguing scientific discoveries.
Check out Between The Buried And Me’s ‘Selkies: The Endless Obsession’:
