A newly discovered deep-sea creature has been partially named after Metallica, the band have announced on social media.
The Macrostylis metallicola is a tiny worm-like creature that grows up to 6.5 millimeters long and can be found living in the Clarion Clipperton Zone, a submarine region between Hawaii and Mexico. The creature typically lives in sea depths at 400 times the pressure of Earth’s atmosphere.
"Senckenberg researcher Dr. Torben Riehl and Dr. Bart De Smet of Ghent University in Belgium have discovered a new crustacean species in the depths of the northern Pacifica Ocean and decided to name it after some rock band," Metallica wrote on Instagram. The post goes on to explain that Dr. Riehl has been a fan of the band since childhood.
"The Thing That Should Not Be has a few things in common with us," Metallica’s post adds. "The worm-like creature dwells in complete darkness, has no eyes, and is colourless. 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!"
You can find out more about the creature via Dr. Riehl and Dr. De Smet’s research article on their discovery here.
