Obamadon lizard named after smiling president

Outbackjack
Outbackjack: Researchers at Yale University in the US have named a newly discovered prehistoric lizard Obamadon gracilis, in honour of US president Barack Obama's toothy grin.

They got the name by combining the Latin "Obamadon" for "Obama's teeth" and "gracilis," which means slender.

"The lizard has these very tall, straight teeth and Obama has these tall, straight incisors and a great smile," Yale palaeontologist Nick Longrich said.

The small, insect-eating lizard was first discovered in eastern Montana in 1974 but a recent re-examination showed the fossil had been wrongly classified as a Leptochamops denticulatus and was, in fact, a new species, researchers told Reuters.

Along with many dinosaurs, the lizard died out about 65 million years ago when a giant asteroid struck earth, scientists say.
US President-elect Barack Obama Photo: 'Great smile': Barack Obama in 2008 (Jason Reed, file photo: Reuters)

Mr Longrich said he waited until after the recent US election to name the dinosaur.

"It would look like we were kicking him when he's down if he lost and we named this extinct lizard after him," he said.

'Romneydon' was never under consideration and 'Clintondon' didn't sound good, he added.

Mr Obama is not the first politician whose name has been used to help classify living organisms.

Megalonyxx jeffersonii, an extinct species of plant-eating ground sloth, was named in honour of president Thomas Jefferson, an amateur palaeontologist who studied the mammal.

In 2005, entomologists named three species of North American slime-mould beetles Agathidium bushi, Agathidium cheneyi and Agathidium rumsfeldi after the then-president, vice president and secretary of defence.

And last month scientists named five new species of fish found in the eastern US rivers after Mr Obama, Bill Clinton, Teddy Roosevelt, Jimmy Carter and Al Gore.

Obamadon gracilis was one of nine newly discovered species reported on Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
11 years ago Report
0