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 Joan Rivers once said Mick Jagger's lips are so big he could French-kiss a moose, and now the Rolling Stones frontman's lips have inspired the name of an ancient swamp creature that probably also had a set of huge smackers. 
 
 Researchers named the creature Jaggermeryx naida, which translates to "Jagger's water nymph," a reference to the creature's Jagger-like lips and its swamp habitat. The jawbone fossils of the creature suggest that, when it was alive some 19 million years ago, it was deer-sized and likely resembled a cross between a small hippo and a long-legged pig. A series of holes along the jawbone sets Jaggermeryx apart from other species in its group. The holes likely held nerve endings for the chin and lower lip that would have given the animal a set of super-sized and sensitive lips, the researchers said. 
 
 "The animal probably had a highly innervated muzzle with mobile and tactile lips, thus the Jagger reference," Gregg Gunnell, a paleontologist at Duke University and co-author of the study describing the creature, said in a statement. [StarStruck: 16 Species Named After Celebrities] 
 
 Traces of various isotopes (atoms of the same element with different numbers of neutrons) in the bones suggest the creature was likely a herbivore. The researchers think its sensitive snout helped the hippo-pig sniff out food in swamplands, and its Jagger-esque lips and jutting lower teeth helped it gobble up plants. 
 
 Top and side views of the jaw bone of an ancient swamp creature. Researchers named the animal after Mick Jagger for its highly sensitive snout and lips. 
 
 Credit: Gregg Gunnell, Duke Lemur Center View full size image Top and side views of the jaw bone of an ancient swamp creature. Researchers named the animal after Mick Jagger for its highly sensitive snout and lips. 
 
 Jaggermeryx belongs to an extinct group of small hoofed animals called anthracotheres. Researchers unearthed the fossils in the Wadi Moghra desert in Egypt, but geological records show that millions of years ago the area was likely a tropical delta filled with swamps. Jaggermeryx is one of six species within the anthracotheres group discovered in the area. 
 
 While they can differentiate anthracotheres by species based on jawbones, the researchers note in their paper published in the journal Paleontology that it's difficult to tell male and female anthracotheres apart. The recovered fossils are now housed at Duke, the Cairo Geological Museum and Cairo University. 
 
 The two co-authors of the study describing the swamp creature are big Jagger fans. Ellen Miller, a physical anthropologist at Wake Forest University in North Carolina, just finished reading the autobiography of Keith Richards, Jagger's Rolling Stones bandmate. Gunnell calls himself a "huge Rolling Stones fan" and said "Exile on Main Street" and "Let it Bleed" are his favorite albums. 
 
 "Some of my colleagues suggested naming the new species after Hollywood star Angelina Jolie, because she also has famous lips. But for me it had to be Mick," Miller said in the statement. 
 
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 Lips like Jagger. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit) 
 
 Sir Mick of The Rolling Stones has had a special honor bestowed on him by scientists -- a newly discovered species has been named for him. Or, more accurately, for his lips. 
 
 The Jaggermeryx fossil. (Wake Forest University) 
 
 Jaggermeryx naida translates to "Jagger's water nymph," and it lived around 19 million years ago in Africa. It was found in the Egyptian desert, but in its day the area would have been swampy -- other fossils nearby included catfish, turtles and waterbirds. 
 
 The fossil's jaw, Wake Forest University paleoanthroplogist Ellen Miller said in a statement, had eight holes on either side. These probably held nerves, giving the creature a sensitive lip that it would use to forage for food. In other words, it had big, flappy lips that it used to snuffle all over the riverbank. 
 
 The Jaggermeryx naida was probably about the size of a modern deer. According to Miller and colleagues, it was something like a cross between a skinny hippo and a leggy pig. 
 
 That doesn't sound like the most majestic beast to take on as your namesake, but Jagger is in good company: Researchers often use celebrities as inspiration when they name newly discovered creatures. Jagger even had some competition for the honor. 
 
 "Some of my colleagues suggested naming the new species after Hollywood star Angelina Jolie, because she also has famous lips," Miller said in a statement. "But for me it had to be Mick."
– Congratulations, Mick Jagger: You and your kisser can now claim as your namesake a long-extinct swamp-dwelling creature LiveScience describes as something between "a small hippo and a long-legged pig" with really sensitive lips. Jaggermeryx naida, or "Jagger's water nymph," lived about 19 million years ago, adds the Washington Post, and its jawbone indicates it "probably had a highly innervated muzzle with mobile and tactile lips, thus the Jagger reference," says Gregg Gunnell, the Duke paleontologist and Jagger fanboy behind its discovery. Jaggermeryx naida was found in Egypt's Wadi Moghra desert, which apparently used to be considerably more verdant; the critter used its snout to forage for plants to eat. But Jagger wasn't a shoo-in, says study co-author and Wake Forest physical anthropologist Ellen Miller: "Some of my colleagues suggested naming the new species after Hollywood star Angelina Jolie, because she also has famous lips. But for me it had to be Mick." (Stephen Colbert has a beetle named after him.)