Pink Floyd have shrimp species named after them

By Scott Munro
( Prog )
last updated

Newly discovered pistol shrimp named after Pink Floyd thanks to zoologists’ love of the prog legends

Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd

A newly discovered species of pistol shrimp has been named in honour of Pink Floyd.

The Synalpheus pinkfloydi was discovered and catalogued by Arthur Anker of the Universidade Federal de Goiás in Brazil, Kristin Hultgren of Seattle University and Sammy De Grave of Oxford University Museum of Natural History.

The crustacean has a distinctive pink claw – but despite its colour, it has been named after the prog legends because Anker and De Grave are fans of the band.

Anker says in a statement: “I often play Pink Floyd as background music while I’m working, but now the band and my work have been happily combined in the scientific literature.”

De Grave adds: “I have been listening to Floyd since The Wall was released in 1979, when I was 14 years old. I’ve seen them play live several times since, including the Hyde Park reunion gig for Live8 in 2005.

“The description of this new species of pistol shrimp was the perfect opportunity to finally give a nod to my favourite band.”

Pistol shrimp, or alpheid shrimp, have asymmetrical claws, with the larger of the two able to emit a powerful sonic wave which is capable of stunning large fish and killing smaller species.

The Synalpheus pinkfloydi

The Synalpheus pinkfloydi (Image credit: Arthur Anker, Sammy De Grave, Kristin Hultgren)

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Scott Munro
Scott Munro

Scott looks after and updates Louder’s online buyer’s guides and also scouts out the best deals for music fans from every corner of the internet. He's spent more than 28 years in newspapers and magazines as an editor, production editor, sub-editor, designer, writer and reviewer. Scott joined our news desk in the summer of 2014, where he wrote extensively about rock, metal, prog and more, before moving to the eCommerce team full-time in 2020. Scott has previous written for publications including IGN, Sunday Mirror, Daily Record and The Herald covering everything from daily news and weekly features, to video games, travel and whisky.