Rock in the Casbah and Should I Stay or Should I Go are among the popular songs from the English band, The Clash. Now, frontman Joe Strummer's name has been given to a new species of deep-sea snails named "Alviniconcha strummeri".

The snails have been deemed pretty punk because of their spiked shells and their habitat in the acidic deepest parts of the ocean, 11,500 feet deep.

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"Because they look like punk rockers in the '70s and '80s and they have purple blood and live in such an extreme environment, we decided to name one new species after a punk rock icon," said Shannon Johnson, Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute research.

Johnson explained the name was based in more than just a love for the music of The Clash.

A. strummeri is now an official part of a group of creatures named after musical icons. Among this group is a crustacean parasite named after Bob Marley and a species of jellyfish named after Frank Zappa.

Quentin Wheeler, director of the International Institute for Species Exploration at SUNY, said naming the creature after a famous personality is one sure way to get species noticed. There are some experts who don't agree, but if there's a little humor, it will be effective.

There are recently published papers stating that five of the new snails were introduced to the world after being collected from their homes in the hydrothermal vents of the Western Pacific and Indian oceans.

The snails were obtained from trips by remotely operated submarines and human occupied ones.  The trips lasted for 15 years, or from 1993 to 2008.

The DNA of the new species has six genealogies contained in the previously monolithic genus of Alviniconcha.

TagsThe Clash, Joe Strummer, London Calling, Spiky Sea Snail, Sea Snail, deep-sea snails Alviniconcha strummeri, Alviniconcha strummeri, marine creatures, animal kingdom, ocean creatures, Ocean