This is so last week’s news, but Barack Obama has had a genus of (prehistoric) creatures named for him: Obamadon. Oh, those whimsical taxonomists!
Wikipedia has a fine piece on it, beginning:
Obamadon is an extinct genus of polyglyphanodontian lizard from the Late Cretaceous of North America. Fossils have been found in the Hell Creek Formation of Montana and the Lance Formation of Wyoming. Researchers describe it as being distinguished by its “tall, slender teeth with large central cusps separated from small accessory cusps by lingual grooves.” The type species was named Obamadon gracilis after United States president Barack Obama, “in reference to the tall, straight teeth, and the manner in which Mr. Obama has acted as a role model of good oral hygiene for the world.” According to Nicholas R. Longrich of Yale University, the creature “was probably a foot long, [and] with these tall, slender teeth it used to eat insects and plant matter.
An artist’s rendering; Obamadon is the little blue lizard in the foreground:
References from the technical literature (all from Wikipedia; not my work):
Longrich, N. R.; Bhullar, B. A. S.; Gauthier, J. A. (2012). “Mass extinction of lizards and snakes at the Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary”. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. doi:10.1073/pnas.1211526110.
Campbell, Hank. Obamadon Gracilis – Toothy Lizard Named After American President, Science 2.0, October 12, 2012.
And the media:
Tau, Byron (December 10, 2012). “Extinct lizard named after Obama”. Politico.
Koebler, Jason (December 10, 2012). “Ancient Extinct Lizard Named After President Obama”. US News and World Report.
Johnson, Carolyn Y. (December 10, 2012). “Yale scientists name Obamadon, a slender-jawed lizard, after the President”. Boston Globe.
Levy, Pima (December 10, 2012). “Scientists Name Extinct Lizard ‘Obamadon’ After President”. Talking Points Memo.
Plus Obama and others in species names:
Crew, Becky (November 29, 2012). “All the Presidents’ fish: Five new species named after Obama, Clinton, Roosevelt, Carter and Gore”. Scientific American.
Then from Jon Lighter on ADS-L, yet another media report on Obamadon and a query:
Is this the first prehistoric beast to be named for its physical resemblance to a specific human being?
My heart says yes.
Somehow I doubt it, given the inclinations of taxonomists, but it would be nice to think so.
December 16, 2012 at 11:58 am |
Now Obama is famous for Oral Hygiene?!? My word, there is no end to his inspirational abilities.
December 16, 2012 at 1:23 pm |
You need a raised-eyebrow emoticon here.
December 16, 2012 at 4:04 pm |
The artist is Carl Buell, who is a terrific paleoartist (FB here: https://www.facebook.com/carl.buell1)
December 16, 2012 at 4:06 pm |
Great. Thanks for identifying the artist.
December 16, 2012 at 4:27 pm |
On ADS-L, Wilson Gray asked about the -don piece of the name. This is a variant of the -odont ‘tooth’ stem, with the -a of Obama swallowing up the -o- of -odont. From Michael Quinion’s affixes site under -odont: