A new species of snail that lives thousands of feet underneath the ocean, near mouths to hydrothermal vents, has been officially named Alviniconcha strummeri after Joe Strummer according to NPR’s interview with Shannon Johnson of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute. Strummer was the front man to the punk rock band The Clash and according to Johnson was “also kind of an environmentalist, he started a foundation that was planting trees all over the world.” Johnson often skips the technical Latin name and refers to these spiky gastropods as “Punk Rock Snails” due to not only their appearance but the dangerous place they call home. These hydrothermal vents by which the snails live with no fear bring to mind the nuclear error mentioned in “London Calling” from The Clash’s London Calling (1979). Listen to the Clash below or check out the rest of Shannon Johnson’s interview here.
