The exhibition, Rock Fossils On Tour, will be on display at the Senckenberg Natural History Museum in Frankfurt from April 9 to September 4, 2022.
Rock music meets geological history. Paleontologists not only research fossilized creatures – some of them are also big fans of rock music. To honor their idols, they sometimes name scientific finds after bands and musicians. Scientifically and didactically exciting, the exhibition Rock Fossils On Tour features three-dimensional, realistic models of fossils named after bands or rock stars: Sid Vicious, “Lemmy” Kilmister, Mick Jagger, Frank Zappa, King Diamond, Alissa White-Gluz, and many others. Exhibits range from finely crafted, lifelike models to a 2-meter-wide fossil couch. 14 stations invite visitors to marvel at the bizarre yet aesthetically pleasing “Rock Fossils.” Listening stations allow visitors to sample the music of the eponymous bands, and children can ride trilobite bikes around the mammoths in the Hall of Whales and Elephants. A prominent addition to the exhibition in Frankfurt is a fossil called Ophiura tankardi. It was only recently named by researchers from Luxembourg after the Frankfurt thrash metal band Tankard.
“We want to bring sound to the museum!” says museum director Dr. Brigitte Franzen. “After the end of our anniversary year and prior to the opening of the “Aha!? Research Workshop” in June, we therefore invited this unique special exhibition about fossils and rock music to our museum,” she continues. “In our research, we gain important insights for our present and future by looking into the past, that is, by exploring fossils and their environmental conditions,” adds Prof. Dr. Andreas Mulch, geologist and director of the Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum Frankfurt. “This exhibition establishes a link from the fossils to the present in a very special way – by combining paleontology and rock music.”
The earth has been and still is home to many millions of species of animals, plants, bacteria, and fungi. To be able to explore this diversity, species need a name. In the 18th century, Swedish naturalist Carl von Linné developed a system for the scientific naming of species. In his groundbreaking 1735 work “Systema Naturae,” living and fossil organisms were for the first time given a two-part name consisting of genus and species. This ‘binary nomenclature’ is still being used today.
The exhibition Rock Fossils On Tour now presents all-around remarkable models of fossils named after rock stars: Qiliania graffini, for example, honors Dr. Greg Graffin, co-founder of the band Bad Religion, who is an evolutionary biologist himself. This involves a new species from the group Enantiornithes – extinct birds that still possessed teeth. The trilobite species Arcticalymene viciousi was named after Sid Vicious, bassist of the British punk rock band Sex Pistols. Throughout their evolutionary history, trilobites have developed an amazing diversity that may even seem chaotic. Paleontologists strive to bring order to this chaos.
Paleontology and rock music share a fascination for the hidden, the extreme, and the complexity of our existence. The exhibition shines a spotlight on the secret love between hard music and the science of fossils. Dr. Achim Reisdorf of the Rock Fossils team emphasizes: “It is important to us that our exhibition not only focuses on researchers as music fans, but also addresses new target groups. By combining rock music and science, we have drawn worldwide attention to research.”
Senckenberg scientists have also named new species after their idols from music history. David Bowie was the namesake for a crab spider discovered by spider researcher Dr. Peter Jäger: Heteropoda davidbowie. Dr. Torben Riehl is a deep-sea researcher at Senckenberg who in 2020 named a previously unknown type of crustacean after the heavy metal band Metallica. The eyeless and colorless isopod Macrostylis metallicola lives among valuable manganese nodules on the abyssal seafloor in the North Pacific. “Even back in the 1980s, Metallica’s song ‘Blackened’ warned of the dangers of environmental degradation and biodiversity loss due to humans. With my dedication, I wanted to thank Metallica for their music while at the same time drawing attention to the threat of deep-sea mining," explains Riehl.
New to the traveling exhibition in Frankfurt are the holotype and lifelike model of the brittle star Ophiura tankardi. The fossil originates from the Mainz Basin and was recently named after the Frankfurt thrash metal band Tankard by researchers Dr. Ben Thuy and Dr. Lea Numberger-Thuy of the Luxembourg National Museum of Natural History, along with Kai Nungesser. “When we first heard the news that a multi-million-year-old fossil was to be named after us, we thought it was an early April Fool’s joke,” said singer Andreas “Gerre” Geremia. “But then the Rock Fossils team convinced us that they were dead serious about naming a 30-million-year-old fossil brittle star after Tankard. For us, this is a huge honor, especially since the geological age is ‘roughly appropriate’ – after all, our band is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year. Cheers, Ophiura tankardi, you beautiful starlet!" says a delighted Geremia.
New special exhibition Rock Fossils On Tour from April 9 until September 4, 2022 in the Senckenberg Natural History Museum Frankfurt, Senckenberganlage 25, D-60325 Frankfurt am Main. Combo tickets: 12 Euro for adults, 6 Euro for children and young adults (6 - 15 years), and 30 Euro for families (2 adults and up to 3 children). Opening hours: Mon, Tue, Thu, Fri 9 AM to 5 PM, Wed 9 AM to 8 PM, Sat, Sun and holidays 9 AM to 6 PM.
