Prehistoric Crocodile Named in Honor of Motörhead’s Lemmy Kilmister

The late, great Lemmy Kilmister may have been snubbed in the naming of a new heavy metal element on the periodic table, but now Science as a collective has now made it up to the legendary Motörhead frontman by naming a prehistoric crocodile ‘Lemmysuchus’ in his honor. A palaeoartist’s illustration of the croc (below) even features a pattern on its head that’s based on Snaggletooth:

So what makes this particular beast worthy of the Lemmy name? While you first guess may be “because they traditionally had huge moles on their face,” it’s actually just ’cause this motherfucker was aggressive. University of Edinburgh palaeontologist Michela Johnson notes that “With a metre-long skull and a total length of 5.8 metres [about nineteen feet long], it would have been one of the biggest coastal predators of its time,” while the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society adds that the Lemmysuchus (Lemmysuchi?) “were apex predators in shallow marine environments during the Late Jurassic and Early Cretaceous in Europe and around the coast of the Tethys Seaway.” So these nasty bastards definitely woulda done Lemmy proud.

Lemmy is just the latest in a line of metal musicians after whom various creatures that would make horrible pets have been named. Previous honorees include Megadeth’s Dave Mustaine (a spider), Ozzy Osbourne (a frog), Cannibal Corpse’s Alex Webster (a worm), and Henry Rollins (also a worm).

[via Metal Insider]