A newly discovered sea creature that plied the deep seas before dinosaurs walked the Earth has been named after former President Barack Obama.
Obamus coronatus, a soft-bodied, disc-shaped animal that spent its days on the ocean floor, was discovered by a team led by Mary Droser, a professor of paleontology in the University of California Riverside’s Department of Earth Sciences.
News of the discovery was published online June 14 in the Australian Journal of Earth Sciences. The name is meant to honor President Obama's love of the sciences.
“The two genera that we identified are a new body plan, unlike anything else that has been described," Droser told UCR Today. “We have been seeing evidence for these animals for quite a long time, but it took us a while to verify that they are animals within their own rights and not part of another animal."
A second animal discovered by Droser's team, Attenborites janeae, was named after English naturalist and broadcaster Sir David Attenborough.
This isn't the first time an animal has been named after Obama. According to Science, three species of fish, a spider, an extinct lizard, Amazonian bird, a turtle parasite, cricket parasite and species of orange lichen all carry his name as well.
RELATED STORIES
Rosie the Rhino Is Painting to Save Her Species: 'They're Very Abstract-Looking'
Little Penguin Chick Becomes First of Its Species to Be Hatched in Zoo's 120-Year History
Sanctuary Welcomes Birth of Adorable Baby Rhino from Critically Endangered Species
