A Scandanavian palaeontologist discovered an eel-like marine fossil and named it after Tony Iommi.
A 469 million-year-old fossil was discovered and named after Black Sabbath guitarist, Tony Iommi. Why? Because the scientist who found the thing just loves heavy metal.
Crazier than that, the legendary guitarist himself met with the scientist via FaceTime to be introduced to his super old namesake.
The palaeontologist Mats E. Ericsson was a part of a Scandinavian team working in a Russian river who found the remains of an eel-like creature known as ‘Drepanoistodus Iommii’.
Mats was then delighted with a surprise from Westside BID manager Mike Olley, who had set up a FaceTime meeting between Tony and Mats on the Black Sabbath bench on Broad Street.
Tony said it was a real shock to find out a fossil had been named after him.
Tony continued, “I’ve had a bit of abuse from my friends about it who’ve enjoyed calling me an old fossil, but I think it’s great, a real honour.”
Mats has been a huge Black Sabbath fan since he was a child and was so excited by the discovery that he commissioned famous heavy-metal painter, Joe Petagno, to create a piece that would honour the occasion.
“This has to be the weirdest thing that’s ever been named after me but I’m really proud of it and I wanted to thank Mats and his team in person for being such brilliant fans,” Tony said.
While Mats spoke to Tony he said, “What an absolute honour it is to meet you. It’s hard for me to wrap my head around this. From our point of view, it’s to be regarded as nothing but a huge honour.
“The reason we do this is to have fun and to combine my love affairs with nature and with music. But this is just amazing. For me to publish academic papers is fun but talking to you is priceless.”
Mats added, “I love the painting that Joe affectionately refers to as ‘Tony Iommi conjuring an otherworldly gargantuan conodont.”
Here’s hoping that Mats makes plenty more discoveries to name after the remaining 3 original band members.
