Mick Jagger may be considered a fossil by the younger generation of music fans, but he is alive after all. The same cannot be said for an extinct swamp animal, which will never know that scientists have now named it after the Rolling Stones singer.
A recently discovered swamp animal has been named Jaggermeryx naida by a pair of scientists, who published their findings in the Journal of Paleontology. Ellen Miller, of Wake Forest University and Gregg Gunnell, of Duke University, said that the creature’s bizarre mouth structure reminded them of Jagger’s iconic lips and decided that he was the only possible celebrity the creature should be named after.
Angelina Jolie was suggested, but Miller rejected that idea right away, notes The New York Times. She is too big a Stones fan to miss an opportunity to name a creature after her idol. Gunnell, a fan of Let It Bleed and Exile on Main Street, agreed.
They described the lip structure as “a highly innervated muzzle with mobile and tactile lips.”
Jaggermeryx was discovered in Egypt and likely existed 19 million years ago, when the area was a lush swamp. Aside from the lips, the rest of the body looked like a mix of hippo and pig.
Don’t feel bad for Jolie, though. She does have a spider named after her. Stephen Colbert has a spider as well.
In other words, scientists know their pop culture.
image courtesy of Kristin Callahan/ACE/INFphoto.com