Political dinosaur

Chlidonias

Chlidonias

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Yale names new toothy dinosaur Obamadon after smiling president
Researchers at Yale University have named a newly discovered dinosaur ‘Obamadon gracilis' in honor of the 44th president's toothy grin.

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 on Tuesday.

Obamadon gracilis was one of nine newly discovered species reported on Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

In naming the new species, Yale scientists combined 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," said Nick Longrich, a paleontologist at the school in New Haven, Connecticut.

Like many other dinosaurs, the lizard died out about 65 million years ago when a giant asteroid struck earth, scientists say.

Longrich said he waited until after the recent U.S. 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 in an interview.

"Romneydon" was never under consideration and "Clintondon" didn't sound good, said Longrich, who supported Hillary Clinton's failed run against Obama in the 2008 Democratic primary.

Obama is not the first politician whose name has been used to help classify organisms. Megalonyxx jeffersonii, an extinct species of plant-eating ground sloth, was named in honor of President Thomas Jefferson, an amateur paleontologist who studied the mammal.

In 2005, entomologists named three species of North American slime-mold beetles agathidium bushi, agathidium cheneyi and agathidium rumsfeldi in honor of the then-president, vice president and secretary of defense.

Other celebrity names also have been used to name new species. A small Caribbean crustacean has been named after reggae icon Bob Marley, an Australian horsefly has been named in honor of hip-hop star Beyonce, and an endangered species of marsh rabbit has been named after Playboy magazine founder Hugh Hefner.
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Unfortunately, whoever wrote that article about Obamadon demonstrated a distinct lack of reading comprehension, and zoological understanding; the new species which has been described is *not* a dinosaur, but a member of an extinct line of squamate lizards closely related to skinks which was contemporary with the dinosaurs. In terms of how distant this taxon is from the Dinosauria, this is rather akin to suggesting that the short-beaked echidna and the dingo are congeneric ;)
 
TeaLovingDave said:
Unfortunately, whoever wrote that article about Obamadon demonstrated a distinct lack of reading comprehension, and zoological understanding; the new species which has been described is *not* a dinosaur, but a member of an extinct line of squamate lizards closely related to skinks which was contemporary with the dinosaurs. In terms of how distant this taxon is from the Dinosauria, this is rather akin to suggesting that the short-beaked echidna and the dingo are congeneric ;)
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"political extinct lizard" doesn't sound as good though!
 
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