469 million-year-old fossil Named After Tony Iommi

via @fabian_sabbath | Instagram

Tony Iommi Was The Logical Name Choice

A newly discovered fossil of a species that closely resembles an eel that dated back 469 million years ago was named after Tony Iommi. It was found in a succession of limestone in Western Russia. And with every newly discovered fossil means it had to be formally named with a Latin moniker. The Danish and Swedish paleontologists who discovered it was known to have a passion for naming fossils for legendary rock musicians.

They already named fossils for Motorhead’s Lemmy Kilmister, bassist  Alex Webster, and Kind Diamond. According to Mats Erikson one of the paleontologists;

“Tony Iommi has been high on my list of people I wanted to honor this way. To my great pleasure, both my fellow co-authors loved the suggestion. So, now Tony Iommi is also immortalized in the scientific literature with the gorgeous species Drepanoistodus Iommii,”

We just now wonder what Tony Iommi thinks of all of this? In any case, we’re glad to see that one of our best-loved guitarists is also part of the fossil roster. Watch Tony Iommi’s solo in ‘Heaven and Hell’ below: