A species of prehistoric crocodile has been renamed in honour of the similarly fearsome frontman of Motörhead , Lemmy. Described by the Natural History Museum’s curator Lorna Steele as ‘one of the nastiest sea creatures ever to have inhabited the earth,’ Lemmysuchus Obtusidens (translation: Lemmy’s Crocodile), lived around 164 million years ago and was one of the biggest marine predators of its time at 19ft long.
Steele said: “I’ve always been into heavy rock, and Motörhead are one of my favourite bands and since Lemmy died I have been keen to name something after him. “I had found a small crocodile in Morocco and thought that would have to do, but then this one emerged and I thought ‘Oh My God!’ this is the nastiest, meanest, biggest sea-crocodile there was. So it was perfect.
“Sea crocs are extinct now, but they were once a massive group of their time and were dominant in the Middle Jurassic. You wouldn’t have wanted to come across one. They were far bigger than today’s crocodiles. These things were massive, with armoured plates on their back and belly.
“Although Lemmy passed away at the end of 2015, we’d like to think that he would have raised a glass to Lemmysuchus, one of the nastiest sea creatures to have ever inhabited the Earth.”
The infamous Motörhead frontman died on December 30, 2015 following a short battle with cancer. A posthumous album of cover versions from throughout their career, Under Cöver, will be released on September 1. It features covers of songs by the likes of The Ramones, Metallica, The Sex Pistols and more. The band’s previously unreleased version of David Bowie’s Heroes is among our pick of the last week’s best tracks, which you can read here .
