New Fossil Named After BLACK SABBATH Guitarist TONY IOMMI

October 8, 2021

A new species of conodonts has just been discovered by a Danish/Swedish team of palaeontologists. The fossil is around 469 million years old and was recovered from a succession of limestone in western Russia, rocks that once formed the sea floor sediments during the Ordovician Period. Because the species proved to be new to science, it had to be formally baptized with a unique Latin moniker. As all study authors are passionate hobby musicians and have long love affairs with the history of heavy rock music, they decided to honor one of heavy metal's true pioneers — guitar legend Tony Iommi of BLACK SABBATH.

Says Mats E. Eriksson: "I personally have quite an extensive track record of combining my science of palaeontology with heavy music (manifested through fossils named after Lemmy Kilmister, Alex Webster and King Diamond, but also through the travelling exhibition Rock Fossils, popular science books, and even 'paleo metal' records),so it came easy to me.

"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."

This is a great fit also because just like BLACK SABBATH have a heavy legacy that includes a convoluted history of several lineup changes, the research history of conodonts is extensive and convoluted, dating back to the mid-nineteenth century. Nonetheless, it was not until the 1980s that their true biological affinity was understood, that the microscopic phosphatic elements usually found in the fossil record comprised the oral elements of a primitive type of fish. And such "teeth" (including the Iommi fossil) proved to be plentiful in the Russian rocks studied.

Says conodont specialist Jan Audun Rasmussen: "Drepanoistodus Iommii is indeed excellently preserved, belongs to a complex group of conodonts, and has great potential as a time marker (so-called biostratigraphy)."

Adds Anders Lindskog: "The rocks we sampled at a steep Russian river bluff might not look like much to the naked eye, but they have turned out to be a treasure trove for us fossil aficionados."

Although the fossil holds a true beauty in and of itself (well, we all know this is in the eye of the beholder),Eriksson argued that it should also be given an artistic makeover. "I commissioned legendary 'heavy metal painter' Joe Petagno — whom I have been working with several times over the last few years — to make a majestic, honorary painting. I love the piece that Joe affectionately refers to as 'Tony Iommi conjuring an otherworldly gargantuan conodont.'"

The scientific article Rasmussen, J.A., Eriksson, M.E. & Lindskog, A. 2021: Middle Ordovician Drepanoistodus (Vertebrata, Conodonta) from Baltica, with description of three new species is published in European Journal of Taxonomy 74: 106–134. It can be found here.

Find more on Black sabbath
  • facebook
  • twitter
  • reddit
  • email

Comments Disclaimer And Information

BLABBERMOUTH.NET uses the Facebook Comments plugin to let people comment on content on the site using their Facebook account. The comments reside on Facebook servers and are not stored on BLABBERMOUTH.NET. To comment on a BLABBERMOUTH.NET story or review, you must be logged in to an active personal account on Facebook. Once you're logged in, you will be able to comment. User comments or postings do not reflect the viewpoint of BLABBERMOUTH.NET and BLABBERMOUTH.NET does not endorse, or guarantee the accuracy of, any user comment. To report spam or any abusive, obscene, defamatory, racist, homophobic or threatening comments, or anything that may violate any applicable laws, use the "Report to Facebook" and "Mark as spam" links that appear next to the comments themselves. To do so, click the downward arrow on the top-right corner of the Facebook comment (the arrow is invisible until you roll over it) and select the appropriate action. You can also send an e-mail to blabbermouthinbox(@)gmail.com with pertinent details. BLABBERMOUTH.NET reserves the right to "hide" comments that may be considered offensive, illegal or inappropriate and to "ban" users that violate the site's Terms Of Service. Hidden comments will still appear to the user and to the user's Facebook friends. If a new comment is published from a "banned" user or contains a blacklisted word, this comment will automatically have limited visibility (the "banned" user's comments will only be visible to the user and the user's Facebook friends).