--- title: "Scientists Name “Funky Worm” Amphibian After a Weird 70s Funk Song" description: "New amphibian fossils just dropped, and this one, the \"funky worm,\" is named for a really strange 1970s funk song beloved by its discoverers." date: "2023-01-27" modified: "2023-01-27" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/funky-worm-funk-song" categories: - "Energy" - "Fossil Fuels" - "Science & Energy" tags: - "amphibians" - "fossils" - "paleontology" - "the digest" --- # Scientists Name “Funky Worm” Amphibian After a Weird 70s Funk Song ![New amphibian fossils just dropped, and this one, the "funky worm," is named for a really strange 1970s funk song beloved by its discoverers.]() *\Image: National Park Service and the Petrified Forest Museum Association\* ## Funky Little Monkey A new ancient amphibian just dropped, and this one is named for an exceptionally bizarre 1970s funk song. Named *Funcusvermis gilmorei —* or "funky worm" *—* by paleontologists at Virginia Tech, this newly-discovered little dude whose [debut graces the pages of a recent issue of the *Nature* journal]() seems to plug a hole in the [strange lineage of caecilians](), a toothy, limbless, subterranean and honestly quite creepy type of amphibian. As VT geoscience doctoral student and *F. gilmorei* co-discoverer [Ben Kligman said in the school's press release](), finding the funky worm's fossils was particularly exciting because researchers had for a long time been stumped as to where caecilians actually came from, with a whopping 87 million years between ancestors that, until recently, had yet to be filled. "Seeing the first jaw under the microscope, with its distinctive double row of teeth, sent chills down my back," Kligman adorably recounted. "We immediately knew it was a caecilian, the oldest caecilian fossil ever found, and a once-in-a-lifetime discovery." As the press release notes, the funky worm "shares skeletal features related more with early frog and salamander fossils," which may also point towards caecilians' strange origins being shared with other amphibians. https://twitter.com/VTechmeetsPaleo/status/1618277766520078338 ## By Any Other Name As the VT statement notes, this groovy guy was named after the Ohio Players' hilarious 1972 song "[Funky Worm]()," which was apparently one of the study authors' favorite tunes during their 2019 dig at Arizona’s Petrified Forest National Park, where they first discovered the fossil that became *F. gilmorei*. The last part of the species' scientific name, the press release notes, is meant to honor Drexel University's Ned Gilmore, a collections curator at Drexel University's Academy of Natural Sciences with whom Kligman volunteered back in the day as an undergrad. As lead paleontologist Adam Marsh notes in the press release, the scientists' irreverent naming process fits *F. gilmorei* perfectly. "As the eponymous song says," Marsh quipped, "it's the funkiest worm in the world." **More on new, ancient discoveries:** [*Scientists Sequence DNA They Found From 2 Million Years Ago*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()