The Alviniconcha strummeri sea snail is covered in awesome spikes giving it the telltale appearance (you may need to squint your eyes a bit) of a classic spike-haired punk rocker. In fact, the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute named it Alviniconcha strummeri after the famous Clash frontman, punk rocker Joe Strummer.
“Because they look like punk rockers in the 70s and 80s and have purple blood and live in such an extreme environment, we decided to name one new species after a punk rock icon.”
These golf ball-sized punk rock snails live thousands of feet underwater, crowded around the mouths of fiery-hot hydrothermal vents. Scientists believe the extreme heat from the thermal vents are what give the snail its typical severely damaged and spiked shell.
The Alviniconcha is a genus of deep water sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks in the family Provannidae.
