Thus explaining Mitch McConnell's unceasing opposition

September 9, 2016 9:49 AM

Barack Obama is officially now a parasite (again). It's an honor. A new genus of blood fluke was discovered in 2015 in Malaysian freshwater turtles (PDF). After discovering that he shared a common ancestor with President Obama, lead researcher Thomas R. Platt bestowed the name Baracktrema obamai on the new species.

This is not the first species to be named in honor of President Obama. Others include:

*Aptostichus barackobamai, a trapdoor spider native to California.

*Etheostoma obama, a freshwater darter found in Tennessee.

*Obamadon, an extinct North American lizard from the late Cretaceous.

*Paragordius obamai, a parasitic hairworm from Kenya.

*Nystalus obamai, an Amazonian puffbird.

*Caloplaca obamae, a species of lichen found in California.

*Teleogramma obamaorum , a cichlid found in the Congo River.

posted by palindromic (16 comments total)

FishBase is down, I repeat, FishBase is down.

I don't why that's so funny to me, but it is.

Also, Obama don sounds delicious. I'm picturing katsu don, but maybe with spam to reflect his Hawaiian youth. Or maybe just katsu don with some added pineapple? Maybe I'm just hungry.
posted by maryr at 10:06 AM on September 9, 2016

Thanks, Obama!
posted by drezdn at 10:10 AM on September 9, 2016 [1 favorite]

I look forward to all the horrific, disgusting, repulsive creatures waiting to be named after President Trump.

Surely there's a species of leech out there waiting to be discovered? A new disease carrying parasite? Some kind of multi-legged invertebrate that feeds on other animals' feces?
posted by Naberius at 10:15 AM on September 9, 2016

List of organisms named after famous people.
posted by blue_beetle at 10:19 AM on September 9, 2016 [1 favorite]

Apparently, Obamadon is so named because of its toothy smile, which leads me to believe they wanted to name it after Joe Biden, but decided Bidendon didn't sound as cool.
posted by Sys Rq at 10:22 AM on September 9, 2016 [3 favorites]

Apparently, Obamadon is so named because of its toothy smile, which leads me to believe they wanted to name it after Joe Biden, but decided Bidendon didn't sound as cool.

The sunglasses kept falling off.
posted by Etrigan at 10:36 AM on September 9, 2016 [4 favorites]

Kudos to the lichen dudes who got the declension right. The genitive of Obama should be Obamae! He's not Barachus Obamaus.

(Masculine nouns in -a are rare, but cf. agricola, nauta.)

(Obamaorum is an attempt at a genitive plural... should be Obamarum.)
posted by zompist at 10:41 AM on September 9, 2016 [5 favorites]

So what should we make of the declension of Ateles geoffroyi?
posted by biogeo at 11:39 AM on September 9, 2016

I thought there was a move away from naming new organisms after people and toward more 'scientifically' meaningful names.
posted by Insert Clever Name Here at 1:00 PM on September 9, 2016

This beats the hell out of a Frigate and high school gym set.
posted by clavdivs at 1:35 PM on September 9, 2016

Well, Obama could be neuter plural. Each of us contains multitudes, after all.
posted by eclectist at 2:46 PM on September 9, 2016

Obama bo Bama Bonama
fanna fo Fabama
Fee fi mo Mama
Obama!
posted by oneswellfoop at 3:45 PM on September 9, 2016

Well, Obama could be neuter plural.

Obamae are 75 percent female, after all.
posted by Etrigan at 3:56 PM on September 9, 2016

After discovering that he shared a common ancestor with President Obama, lead researcher Thomas R. Platt bestowed the name Baracktrema obamai on the new species.

I misinterpreted this sentence at first, thinking the "he" referred to the blood fluke. Like, yeah... I suppose the blood fluke and Obama share a common ancestor, but then again so do we all!
posted by brundlefly at 5:24 PM on September 9, 2016 [2 favorites]

"Search your feelings...you know it to be true..."
posted by littlejohnnyjewel at 9:55 PM on September 9, 2016 [1 favorite]

discovering that he shared a common ancestor with President Obama

The blood fluke does share a common ancestor with Obama as well, as pointed out above.
posted by StickyCarpet at 1:33 AM on September 10, 2016