Extinct lizard named Obama

The scientific community found a special way to honor US President Barack Obama when they used his name to call a vanished lizard.

Obamadon gracilis lizard illustration (in typography
Japan) in the period of dinosaurs that dominated the earth. (Photo: Carl Buell)

Obamadon gracilis is the name of a small lizard that existed about 65 million years ago. They eat insects and have a body length of about 30cm, Boston Globe reported. Scientists at Yale University and Harvard University studied their fossil patterns to find out what caused them to become extinct at the same time as dinosaurs. Then they decided to call them Obamadon gracilis.

Previously, experts believed that the collision between a meteorite and the Earth caused dinosaurs to extinction, but small lizards still survived. But the research team at Yale University and Harvard University confirmed that all species weighing more than 450g, including lizards, perish.

Nicholas Longrich, a paleontologist at Yale University, confirmed that today's lizards began to appear after the extinction of dinosaurs.

This is the third time people use Mr. Obama's name to call species. Previously his name was given to a fish (Etheostoma obama) and a lichen (Caloplaca obamae).