A Newly Discovered Shrimp Species Just Got Named After Pink Floyd

Rock and roll! A new species of shrimp has just been discovered!

This shrimp species has one giant pink claw, which it opens and shuts quickly to create large sounds of up to 210 decibels and that it can use to kill or stun nearby fish for food or for protection. It’s appropriate then that Dr. Sammy DeGrave, the head of research at Oxford University Museum of Natural History as well as the discoverer of the new shrimp species, took the opportunity to pay tribute to a rock band when naming his find.

DeGrave, a big fan of Pink Floyd, chose to name the new species Synalpheus pinkfloydi. While some were hopeful that the name is an allusion to the old rock legend that a Pink Floyd concert once was so loud, it killed all the fish in a nearby pond, the name is actually much simpler. After also noting that such a feat by Pink Floyd would be impossible, DeGrave told NPR that the name actually comes from the shrimp’s pink claw: “The reference is to the line, ‘By the way, which one of you is Pink?’ from the song ‘Have A Cigar.’ . . . 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.”

[Photo courtesy of Zootaxa]

[H/T NPR]