Tony Iommi , legendary guitarist of Black Sabbath , was officially introduced to a 469-million-year-old fossil that was named after him, the Drepanoistodus Iommii.
The meeting, as reported by NME , took place this week near Black Sabbath's heavy metal bank in Birmingham, England, and was led by the general manager of the Westside Business Improvement District (BID), Mike Olley.
Iommi received a personalized photo of a fossil and expressed his gratitude: "It was a shock to learn that a real fossil was named in my honor," he said.
The newly discovered fossils are part of a conodont species that, according to an official report from the team , was unearthed from a limestone succession in western Russia that formed sediments on the seabed during the Ordovician period.
Paleontologist Mats E. Eriksson , one of those responsible for the discovery, is a big fan of heavy metal and chose to honor the guitarist for his influence on the genre. “Tony Iommi is at the top of my list of people I wanted to honor in this way,” he told The European Journal of Taxonomy (via Bravewords ).
"To my great satisfaction, my fellow co-authors loved the suggestion. So now Tony Iommi is also immortalized in scientific literature with the beautiful species Drepanoistodus Iommii," he concluded.
