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Carl Buell
In this artist's conception, the carnivorous lizard Palaeosaniwa stalks a pair of hatchling Edmontosaurus dinosaurs as the snake Cerberophis looks on from above, and the lizard Obamadon watches from below. Meanwhile, in the background, a Tyrannosaurus rex encounters a Triceratops troop while an asteroid streaks down to Earth.
The mass extinction that killed off the dinosaurs 65 million years ago also did in lots of lizards — including a newly identified creature that's been named Obamadon gracilis in honor of President Barack Obama.
Obama already has a type of fish (Ethiostoma obama) and lichen (Caloplaca obamae) named after him, and now the recently re-elected leader of the free world can add a foot-long, slender-toothed casualty of the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction to the list.
Yale paleontologist Nicholas Longrich, the lead author of a paper announcing the find in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, told me that the name arose from a conversation he had with a friend in late 2008, when folks were wondering how Obama's election would change the political scene.
"I said, yeah, we should name a dinosaur after him," Longrich said. "It was sort of a smart-ass comment."
But the idea stuck. After all, this is the guy who named a different fossil "Mojoceratops."
"It was catchy, and it seemed like a fun thing to do," he said.
There's a serious point behind the paper, of course: Longrich and his colleagues analyzed at fossils representing 30 different types of snakes and lizards, previously collected from locales in western North America ranging from New Mexico to Alberta. Nine of the species, including Obamadon, were previously unrecognized.
"Lizards and snakes rivaled the dinosaurs in terms of diversity, making it just as much an 'Age of Lizards' as an 'Age of Dinosaurs,'" Longrich said in a Yale news release.
Previous studies had suggested that some snake and lizard species went extinct, along with the dinosaurs and many types of mammals, birds, insects and plants. The extinction was presumably due to a catastrophic asteroid strike on Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula.
The new survey suggests that snakes and lizards were hit much harder than previously thought. Longrich and his colleagues estimate that up to 83 percent of all snake and lizard species were killed off. The bigger the creature, the more likely it was to become extinct: The researchers concluded that no species weighing more than a pound survived.
Obamadon was part of a group of creatures known as polyglyphanodonts, which accounted for up to 40 percent of the lizards living in North America before the extinction. Obama's namesake was identified on the basis of jaw fossils from Montana's Hell Creek Formation, with "tall, slender teeth with large central cusps separated from small accessory cusps by lingual grooves."
The lizard was less than a foot long and probably caught insects in its teeth, Longrich said.
The discovery of Obamadon just goes to show how new discoveries can come from old specimens — including fossils that were collected years ago, by paleontologists who were focusing dinosaurs or early mammals rather than snakes or lizards. "There hasn't been a heck of a lot of interest in these specimens," Longrich said. "Here we have all this data that's there, waiting to be studied."
Two of the newly recognized fossil species don't yet have scientific names, but when it comes time for the naming, rest assured that Longrich won't come up with anything too wild and crazy.
"We decided not to do the Hitlerosaurus," he said.
More about celebrity species:
- Lady Gaga immortalized in ferns
- Parasite named after reggae star Bob Marley
- 'Bootylicious' fly named after Beyonce
- 'Venus Rat-Trap' named after TV naturalist
- 'The Hoff' loves his celebrity crabs
- What's in a scientific name? (Scroll down)
In addition to Longrich, the authors of the paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, "Mass Extinction of Lizards and Snakes at the Cretaceous-Paleogene Boundary," include Bhart-Anjan S. Bhullar and Jacques A. Gauthier. Longrich says the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary is a more recent term that applies to the mass extinction also known as the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary.
Alan Boyle is NBCNews.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter and adding the Cosmic Log page to your Google+ presence. To keep up with Cosmic Log as well as NBCNews.com's other stories about science and space, sign up for the Tech & Science newsletter, delivered to your email in-box every weekday. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.
Leave a Comment:
They should have at least reserved a cool name like that for a notable dinosaur, not a run-of-the-mill lizard.
He is just a run-of-the-mill president.
On a good day!
When can we name a recently found animal after a long extinct Obummer?
Wow, the Progressives ARE rewriting history (it figures....Yale).
Maybe they will call Adam and Eve some other names. There has got to be at least two available from the Middle East.
The lizard actually lived, unlike Adam and Eve.
Just as Obummer he speaks with forked tongue.
Why isn't this considered racist? Afterall, I am called a racist if I call obummer a marxist.
that's cause he's not and you're a racist that just hates him because he's black. that's why.
Lord foxdick, I only half hate him because he is only half black. There feel happy about yourself now?
davefromdanapointca....his family resemblence is rather quite remarkable to the poor extinct dinasour..why drag its extinct name thru the mud by renaming it? by the way..i hate obama becase he is a democrat..could care less if he was chinese..stupid far left minions using race baiting for everything if you question Obama because its the only answer they can come up with if you dont kiss his backside..they call you a racist...that word doesnt even hold any meaning anymore since they use it for everything.
Never ceases to amaze me how some people can be so shallow as to worship a politician. And these are supposedly college educated people, yet they think on the level of children.
I think naming snakes and lizards is very appropriate for one of the most deceptive and sneaky presidents this country has had to endure. If his type also become extinct someday, we will be fortunate.
Lots to "ignore" this morning on this vine. I knew when I read the headline it would be a snark-fest for the ignorant.
FOX and Limbaugh ditto-heads are very sad creatures indeed and I would pity them if they weren't so dangerous. They offer nothing to the general discussion except hate and actually impeded our progress as a nation. They embrace unconstitutional concepts like prayer in school and deny equal rights to certain segments of our society because they "hate" them all the while claiming to be following and protecting our constitutional rights.
Thank goodness we were able to turn back the tide in 2008 and again in 2012 and if they continue on the path they have chosen they will be marginalized to the point of laughing-stock.
So keep it up, boys and girls, keep it up, We the People.....have rejected your philosophy and your schemes and plans. Take a hint and clean up your act or face the very real possibility you will become the 21st Century's answer to the John Birch Society. The lunatic fringe and nothing more.
Congratulations Mr. President, another well-deserved honor.
I really don't want to get into the political grandstanding, nor religion bashing, but ramadanosaur has a really nice ring to it.
"they call you a racist...that word doesnt even hold any meaning anymore since they use it for everything."
You all just have wishful thinking that it doesn't have meaning. You all say racist things, and come to the defense of racists. They're just calling it like it is. Just because they call it as often as you do it doesn't mean you're somehow exonerated. You should just own up to it, it looks more pathetic that you keep pretending.
I like it Tony, but why name a dinosaur after a defunct motel chain? I don't get it?
Funny, Skip.
Did you get any snow? We only got a dusting.
Naaah, no snow here it all went south of us. But got coooooold! When I lived in Dallas all I ever saw was ICE!
Happy Holidays and good to hear from you
Obamadon v Republisaurus Wrecks... the Obamadon wins!
That's okay, we all know Republicans are the real dinosaurs
Go home a suck your partners dicky! All you demo's are fags.
lol, yer old man's a fag, like his son.
Heh. Funny Doug. Funny.
Actually, they are just just waiting to discover a new rat or spineless jellyfish that would be suitable to name after the republiClowns!
Doug you really hit a Repueblican nerve. I think you hit the nail right on the head. The two responces you got from some of the smartest people are the way repubs really think.
oh, the old "if you aren't with us then you're a queer©" logical argument. so useful in so few ways.
kinda wish there was a "collapse idiocy" option and not just "collapse comment."
Doug...
DOH!
There's a joke in there somewhere but the Dems will just get all pissy if you joke on Obama so I'll refrain....but I'm going to keep checking back because I'm sure someone wont...lol.
Now, if only the creature's namsake could become extinct.......
I guess it died, similiar to the economy dieing under Obama.
Except of course that the economy has been steadily improving under Obama. Rising from the dead, in fact, if slowly. So it looks like reality wrecks your joke.
"Except of course that the economy has been steadily improving under Obama".................. to the tune of 16+trillion and counting............but thanks for the laugh
What's your part of the deficient now amphiox?
Very funny. So funny I forgot to laugh. Are we falling off that fiscal cliff tomorrow....You people suck. Good luck with those free contraceptives Maureen.
Come on, Newsvine! I know someone out there has a good one!
Well with his policies of increasing the debt and deficit and bankrupt the nation obamadon is trying to make the US extinct too.
But I agree that Obama has a lot in common with a lizard. They are both scaly and slink low to the ground.
Now this is just an insult to the lizard.They could have at least picked someone not trying to make the U.S. as extinct as the lizard.Either way the U.S. is as doomed as the lizard with Obamading at the helm.Wait for the coming ice age !!It will be soon!!!
Except of course Obama's policies have DECREASED the annual deficit every year he has been in office. So it looks like reality has wrecked your attempt at a joke.
amphiox...the deficit is a mist in a bucket..he's added more to the national debt in four years than any other President in history.
Let's put it in terms a little more easy to understand. AS an example: a family has a budget of say $3000/month. They spend spend $4200/month and have $300,000 in debt due to a mortgage, loans etc. It doesn't help if the next month they only spend $3800 and pay minimal amounts (interest only) on their debt and then go out and borrow more to cover their necessary expenses.
In Pres Obama's case, he has preferred to borrow more than the average.
Addendum...I forgot to add that Pres Obama doesn't even have a budget in place to even try and follow; not an official one anyway...we haven't had one for his entire term and form the looks of it he and we may not have one this year either..
Was this lizard's demise also George W. Bush's fault?
What did it do, steal food from working dinosaurs and give it to lazy dinosaurs?
This will annoy students in the future, just like all fossils named after people.
We in the science community tend to dislike names likes these.
We in the taxpaying community tend to dislike names like these, too.
Extinct lizard? Why didn't they name it after John McCain or Mitch McConnell?
or joe biden, he's older then mccain
Should've named a SNAKE after him
Ha, you beat me to it. Lizard is OK, but SNAKE would have been better.
Obama is worthless! just like this 6000 thousand yr old lizard. Dinosaurs were killed at the great flood. Fact! You can't prove me wrong! Salt lines are at every fossil of dino's. The big bang was a big salt rock? No! The great flood killed them. We were made by God not MONKEYS. Dummies
..... are you off your meds again(By the way thats not salt, thats iridium, any salt in the K-T extinction line would have been from the saltwater impact thought to have happened at that time. There is also a ton of carbon from charred wood. Last I checked, wood doesn't burn when underwater)?
...i'm not sure who got the short end of the stick in this naming!
The lizard.
That is where everything associated with Obama belongs---The Stone Age. Wonder what Liberals are going to do when they finally get thier way and everyone is starving to death and just like in Russia there is no toilet paper? It will take another century to undo what the Freaking liberals have done if mankind should live that long.
I'm certain FOX will figure out some way that this shows bias of the scientific community toward the President. Stand by.
You conservatives are so certain The End Of The World is at hand. What holds America back from becoming better and better, in ALL respects, is your resistance to all new ideas. Nothing like what you describe is going to happen. Typical conservative.... rant, kick, scream, character-assassinate, then when you lose the argument (or your sure-fire presidential candidate loses), you throw up your hands and proclaim loudly, "Well, we're all screwed now!" Then go on to itemize your imagined calamities. Nothing like what you, and thousands of other conservatives who post doom and gloom on these boards, will happen. America will work a lot better, once y'all get out the way, know what I'm sayin'? Think about it.
You know if socialism was A new idea i wouldn’t be so against Obama but it isn’t and i have been around long enough to know that. The problem is that the conservatives have been being blamed for everything since Reagan and there hasn’t been a conservative in office since Reagan. Both of the Bush’s are Liberal Republicans Congress has been under democratic control for most of the past 30 years and nothing but liberal Bull @!$%# has occurred. The deficits and housing bubble crash are all the result of Liberal policies. Then a bunch of sniveling snot nosed youth come along that have only been taught that America is bad vote in these SOB’s and continue to blame a group of people that haven’t even been in charge. Right now the Liberal branch of the Republican Party John Boehner and company are setting the Conservatives up to take the fall again when it is Liberal Republicans that are the cause of the collapse and the Fall off the Fiscal Cliff.
You college punks need to go back and study so real History and see what made this country the greatest nation on the face of the Earth. Never in the History of the world have a people been as free as Americans have been and that is the problem. Socialism, communism etc doesn’t work with free thinking people. Every full socialist nation has to keep the people poor while promising prosperity by taking down the Rich. I’ll tell you right now that no country has ever been able to have it’s people be prosperous by making the Rich poorer. If the Rich do not get Richer then no one else is going to either. I am old and won’t live long enough to see it but the day will come when you will wake up one morning and say to yourself “Oh S h i t what did we do”. It will be too late by then to fix it but you enjoy your servitude. That is what Liberalism does to people it turns them into slaves. Every entitlement program created is designed to enslave a population to keep it suppressed and unable to make itself better.
If the U.S. ever does anything remotely socialist, maybe your rants will become relevant.
See you aren't even smart enough to know what socialism is and how it begins and what a very bad ending it always has.
ihateliberals, I've given up trying to explain what you just tried to explain. You might as well dump water into an open ended cylinder expecting it to somehow fill to the top. Oddly, that's what Obama's economic policies are like as well. Now when my liberal friends go on one of their Obama worship rants or tell me how communism/socialism is such a great thing, I just smile and nod. I know I'm going to live through the mess that's being created, but I'd rather save my strength for that. No point in burning it all trying to stop a freight train wreck, when I can step aside and watch it happen, listen to the screaming of all the people that set it to rolling despite all the warnings, and continue on my way.
Should have called it the ObamaDONT.
Wow, more side-splitting, cutting-edge conservative hilarity!
I will say this, the conservative members of the vine do not dissappoint when granted an opportunity to spew vitriol, and sling mud.
What you have to consider carefully is whether it's ethically acceptable to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed man.
You know I was going to pop some joke about the ethics of Cheney shooting a lawyer, but this is no place to bring up a Sith Lord.
yeah eric..they must all be hatefull racists, so where does that leave you stupid ignorant whinning liberals?
Oh I didn't call them anything, however there is a rather large portion of the the conservative members of the vine who are uncivil at best where the President is concerned. Some of them maintain it at just a political level, others decend into veiled racism, but regardless many of them feel the need to use derogitory terminology(just as you have) in describing the President, and liberals in general.
Now yes, I did similar with Cheney, but I whole heartedly believe Cheney is a very vile, evil human being. I have no animosity towards Bush, but I think he was a puppet for the likes of Cheney, Rove and Rumsfeld. That aside, the generlization that I used is based upon the comments that populate this particular subject, as well as any other subject that pertain to Democrates, liberalizism, scientific understanding and civil rights(which are mostly taking the form of gay rights at the moment). Do all of them spew vitriol? No, but those who do not are vastly outnumbered by those who do.
Why insult a lizard by naming it after Obsama? After all it didn't lie, benefit from affirmative action, didn't pal around with terrorists, didn't steal tax payer money to buy votes, wasn't arrogant, wasn't a manchurian candidate, wasn't a traitor...I could go on...poor lizard
"pal around with terrorists"?
"manchurian candidate"?
You are either a troll or too stupid for words. I'm thinking both. And I almost never call abybody stupid on here, but sometimes there is just no other word for it.
jock59801 Go put your head back in your jock strap, Obviously that's where your intelligence is..
They could have named it Brokeyosaurus, or Welfareosaurus Chex.
They couldn't have found a better name.. Millions of us Vets and Patriotic Citizens have been calling Obama that for 4 years. Obama, a Carnivorous Lizard, ugly, mean and scary, made to kill and destroy, that fits him good.. To bad Obama isn't extinct yet..
Hate is fascinating.
Jock when you grow up what do you want to be? That statement above had no hate it was mostly a statement of fact. When you get out of the third grade and the umbilical cord gets cut lets see what you think of Liberalism, socialism and communism. Three of the most failed types of government besides kingdoms to have ever existed. If we were all ants then these governments would work just fine but we aren't ants and when you kill creativity you destroy the human soul and the will to do better. That is socialism and yes we do have forms of it stating in the USA Obamacare, social Security of which i am on and the governments ownership of GM are just starts. socialism is like Frog soup. you put the frog in c0ld water and then bring it to a boil. Well we are in the cold water and the heat is being added.
Good night Jock. I learned a long time ago never have a battle of wits with an unarmed person. since you obviously aren't armed i bid you farewell.
to Namvet 66/67 - I am with you 100% !!!
You cant take it with you.
PS: Money has never been why I do anything. Its simply a means to an end. If that is your only reason for doing anything, I feel sorry for you. Believe it or not, some people want to work together. And it usually works out well. And theres nothing socialist about Obamacare, its insurance. Since the government is on the hook for anyone without insurance, its fair they demand people buy it if they can. Instead of gambling with taxpayer dollars.
Republicans were hoping to name a slug after the presdient to honor what he has done to the economy and country but PETA would have complained about insulting the slug
"Obamadon gracilis"............loosely translated.....Spends with other peoples money.................
Plants, as well as animals, get interesting scientific names for varying reasons. Gifford Pinchot, notable botanist, named the swamp chestnut oak after his bitter rival Ardre Michaux, saying it was a bastard oak and Michaux was the biggest bastard he knew. Look it up. (quercus michauxii)
So like a snake with legs?
An Obamasaurus, cool.