Metallica have inspired the naming of a newly discovered deep-sea crustacean, as the band has announced on social media. Macrostylis metallicola is a tiny worm-like creature that grows up to 6.5 millimeters long and inhabits the Clarion Clipperton Zone, a submarine region between Hawaii and Mexico, at depths where the pressure is equivalent to 400 times that of the atmosphere. Drs. Torben Riehl and Bart De Smet, who discovered the species, decided to name it after the thrash metal band both to pay tribute to their work and also make reference to the polymetallic nodules that make up the species’ habitat.
“The Thing That Should Not Be has a few things in common with us,” Metallica wrote on their Instagram. “The worm-like creature dwells in complete darkness, has no eyes, and is colorless. Talk about Blackened! It also lives amongst metallic nodules containing cobalt, copper, manganese, nickel, and rare-earth elements. So it basically lives in a rock stadium? Now that’s one metal crustacean!”
Back in 2017, researchers discovered a deadly shrimp and named it after Pink Floyd.
