Newly Discovered Deep Sea Crustacean Named After Metallica

Researchers named the deep sea crustacean that they discovered after the American heavy metal band, Metallica. By naming the newly discovered creature as such, the researchers aim to honor the band while also raising environmental awareness.

Macrostylis Metallicola

Metallica is one of the most successful bands, selling over 125 million albums since the 1980s. One of the band's millions of fans is Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum's Dr. Torben Riehl who, along with Dr. Bart De Smet of Ghent University, recently discovered a new crustacean species. In fact, Metallica was such a big part of Dr. Riehl’s life that they named the new crustacean after the band.

"The powerful music of Metallica has accompanied me the majority of my life. Songs such as 'Master of Puppets' and 'One' are outstanding masterpieces in rock history and I am thrilled to be able to give something back to the band by naming a new species after them!" Dr. Riehl said.

The worm-like creature, now called Macrostylis metallicola, was discovered in the Clarion Clipperton Zone between Hawaii and Mexico at depths of about 4,132 to 5,055 meters below. There, the atmosphere is already 400 times over the normal pressure of our atmosphere.

M. metallicola is just about 6.5 millimeters long, does not have eyes, is colorless and, is quite large compared to others in the genus. It was discovered while the researchers were conducting environmental baseline studies on the potential environmental impact of future nodule extraction project in the northern Pacific.

Environmental Awareness

Apart from honoring the band, the name is also meant to raise environmental awareness.

"As a composite word from the Latin word for 'metal' and the New Latin suffix '-cola,' meaning 'inhabiting' or 'living in,' the name simultaneously refers to the species’ habitat that is rich in polymetallic nodules (manganese nodules)," the researchers wrote. "It is meant to raise attention to the habitat of this new species which, sad but true, maybe partially lost or damaged due to nodule mining in the near future potentially putting the new species under threat."

This is because the area where M. metallicola resides in is a part of the deep seafloor that may soon be mined for minerals because of the high demand for raw materials such as copper, cobalt, nickel, and manganese. According to the researchers, the rising demand due to population growth could lead to the disruption and exploitation of the M. metallicola ’s environment which, as it happens, is also home to many other new species.

In fact, in such deep-sea environments, a large fraction, if not the majority, of the collected species are unknown to science.

"The deep sea plays a role in this system being linked to the climate as well as the food webs of the oceans," Dr. Reihl explained. "Even if we cannot stop mining from happening, we have to make sure that manganese-nodule exploitation will be conducted in a sustainable manner by implementing proper management plans and protected areas designed to conserve biodiversity and ecosystem functioning."

The study describing M. metallicola is published in the journal PeerJ.