Can crustaceans sing "Rocket Man?" No, but that didn't stop a researcher from naming a shrimp-like creature discovered in the the reefs of Indonesia after music legend Elton John.
The crustacean, L. eltoni, was found inside of another reef invertebrate, apparently in something called a "commensal association" -- a parasitic relationship where the host is neither helped nor harmed.
So why name a crustacean after a famous musician?
"I named the species in honor of Sir Elton John because I have listened to his music in my lab during my entire scientific career," James Thomas from the Halmos College of Natural Sciences and Oceanography in Florida said in a statement.
"So, when this unusual crustacean with a greatly enlarged appendage appeared under my microscope after a day of collecting, an image of the shoes Elton John wore as the 'Pinball Wizard' came to mind."
The study from Thomas and several other researchers was published this week in the journal ZooKeys.
After the researchers initially discovered the crustacean in the coral reefs of Raja Ampat in Indonesia, they were later contacted by scientists in Hawaii, where L. eltoni had arrived as an invasive species.
So far, it seems like L. eltoni is not related to Cherax snowden, the recently discovered crayfish named after Edward Snowden.
