Is there some correlation between scientists and heavy metal? There has to be. King Diamond and Lemmy had fossils named after them. Dave Mustaine had a tarantula named after him. And now, Ozzy Osbourne joins the elite group of metalheads with new species of animals named after them.
National Geographic reports a new brown and orange colored tree-frog has been discovered in the Brazilian Amazon which emitted sounds similar to a bat. The scientists needed a name for this new bat frog, and immediately thought of the Prince of Darkness:
The male frogs also have an unusually large vocal sac, a nearly transparent piece of skin that inflates to produce its unique high-pitched chirping sound. Male tree frogs in general make loud calls to communicate with females in distant treetops, but the new species is the first known to sound like a bat.
Once the team had brought their treasure back to the lab, "we kept talking about the 'bat frog,' which led to us talking about being fans of Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath," Peloso said.
Ozzy of course famously bit the head off a live bat during a performance in the early 80s. Because of this, the scientists named the frog Dendropsophus ozzyi. Try to say that three times fast.
Congrats to Ozzy. We'll be sitting here waiting for a new breed of animal to be named after us.
