Shrimp aren’t necessarily the most psychedelic creatures on the planet, but they’re definitely in the top five thanks to how fun they are at parties, their overall weird aesthetic, and their fondness for recreational drugs. Now, a scientist is finally recognizing the contributions the little crustaceans have made to psychedelic rock music by naming a new species of shrimp after Pink Floyd. This comes from NPR, which says these shrimp—Synalpheus pinkfloydi—are able to kill fish by making a loud noise with their huge, pink claw. They rapidly open and then close the claw, creating a sound that “can reach up to 210 decibels,” which the story points out is “louder than a typical rock concert.”
As for the name, it was suggested by Dr. Sammy DeGrave, the head of research at the Oxford University Museum Of Natural History, who says it has nothing to do with an old urban legend about Pink Floyd playing a concert so loud that it killed fish in a nearby pond. Weirdly, though, the name also doesn’t just come from Pink Floyd the band, it comes from the line “By the way, which one of you is Pink?” from the song “Have A Cigar.” In other words, Dr. DeGrave wanted to name this shrimp after Pink Floyd because of its pink claw, but instead of just naming it after Pink Floyd, he named it after a line about someone being named Pink from a Pink Floyd song.
Synalpheus pinkfloydi joins Rollinschaeta myoplena and Aphonopelma johnnycashi on the list of creatures named after famous musical acts, and hopefully we’ll get to seem them all go on tour together someday.