190 million-year-old focil is named after Alice Cooper

A newly found fossil was named Serpula alicecooperi in honor of the legendary American singer Alice Cooper. The fossil is of a serpulid worm, a kind of marine worm that lived by filtering the seawater with a crown of tentacles, and it made a calcific tube it lived in. It was found in the 190 million-year-old Hasle Sandstone on the Danish Island of Bornholm by the amateur geologist Mette Hoftstedt. The fossil was given to other researchers who studied it – Tomas Koči from the Natural History Museum in Prague, Czech Republic; Jesper Milàn and Sten Lennart Jakobsen from Geomuseum Faxe, Denmark; and Arden Basforth from the Natural History Museum of Denmark. Jesper Milàn said that it was obvious from the beginning that the fossil is of unknown creature, and being both a paleontologist and a huge fan of metal and rock music, he decided to name the worm in honor of Alice Cooper. The singer is the father of shock rock, and his impact on rock and metal music continues from the late sixties to nowadays. Several other musicians have fossils, named in their honor: Tony Iommi (Black Sabbath), Lemmy Killmister (Motörhead), King Diamond, and The Rolling Stones.


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