Meet ‘Obamadon’, The Newly Identified Pre-Historic Lizard Named After Our President

A newly identified pre-historic lizard has just received its headline-making name: Obamadon gracilis. Colloquially referred to as “Obamadon,” the lizard became extinct during the same event that wiped out dinosaurs. Nicholas Longrich of Yale’s Department of Geology said he was “just having fun with taxonomy” when he chose the name, but that it has no political significance.

Obamadon belongs to a branch of lizards called Polygylphanodontia and was killed at the end of the Cretaceous period. Scientists describe it as a small lizard, “distinguished by tall, slender teeth with large central cusps.” In Latin, “odon” means tooth and gracilis means “slender,” giving more significance to the chosen name.

Obama has been used as a namesake for a newly discovered species at least twice before. In 2009, a lichen was named Caloplaca obamae and just recently, a freshwater darter fish was named Etheostoma Obama.

h/t The Blaze
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