Photo by: Fin Costello/Getty Images

What would be the first thing you’d think of if you discovered the fossil of an ancient dinosaur? For some scientists, a certain guitar shredder pops into their minds.

A group of Scandinavian scientists recently found the fossil of a creature that resembled an eel by a river in Russia. Along with paleontology, the scientists also happen to share a passion for heavy metal. They gave the creature, who is estimated to have lived 469 million years ago during the Ordovician period, the name Drepanoistodus Iommii after Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi.

Mats Eriksson, professor of paleontology at Lund University in Sweden, sent the following email to NBC News about the name. “It’s my way of honoring one of the world’s greatest guitarists in one of the greatest bands of all time…He is already immortalized in music history books and now also in science with this fossil bearing his name.”