Scientists name extinct prehistoric lizard after Obama

Scientists have named a newly discovered ancient lizard that went extinct around 65 million years ago after President Obama.

The lizard, which will be dubbed Obamadon gracilis, was discovered by fossil scientists at Yale and Harvard, according to the Boston Globe.

According to a paper published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the lizard likely disappeared after a mass extension thought to be caused by the Chicxulub asteroid. The impact, near the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico, is thought to have caused a megatsunami and clouded the earth's atmosphere with dust and smoke. 

The lizard carrying Obama's name is small and has a slender jaw. Paleontologists had been considering instead naming a lizard described as a "ferocious carnivore" after Obama, but felt the slender lizard better fit the president.

Scientists said they might have reconsidered the decision had Obama not prevailed in last month's election.

“I was seriously thinking, if the election had gone the other way, I would have yanked it,” Yale paleontologist Nicholas Longrich told the paper. “It might have seemed like we were mocking it, naming a lizard that goes extinct after that, seemed kind of cruel.”

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