Ribbet Man: New Frog Species Named After Ozzy Osbourne

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In the same week that Ozzy Osbourne received the Global Icon Award at the MTV Europe Music Awards, comes news that the OzzyFrog_Nov2014Black Sabbath frontman received a more important honour: having a new species of frog named after him.

According to a report by National Geographic, Pedro Peloso, a postdoctoral fellow at Museu Paraense Emilio Goeldi in Brazil, and his team discovered a new species of tree frog in 2009 during a biodiversity survey of Amazonas’ Floresta Navionel de Pau-Rosa.

In addition to having ‘mysteriously long, delicate fingers and toes,’ it was realized that this newly-discovered amphibian, says National Geographic, ‘had an ‘unusually large vocal sac, a nearly transparent piece of skin that inflates to produce its unique high-pitched chirping sound.’ More interestingly, this new species of frog sounded like a bat – which is not typical.

“We kept talking about the ‘bat frog,’ which led to us talking about being fans of Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath,” explained Peloso, who, as a fan, is of course aware of the time Osbourne bit the head off of a bat during a 1981 concert.

Thus, this new species of frog has become known as Dendropsophus ozzyi.

Ribbet, but that’s how it goes.

-Adam Grant

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