Name: Obamadon
(Obama tooth).
Phonetic: O-bah-mah-don.
Named By: Nicholas R. Longrich, Bhart-Anjan S.
Bhullar & Jacques A. Gauthier - 2013.
Classification: Chordata, Reptilia, Squamata,
Polyglyphanodontia.
Species: O. gracilis (type).
Diet: Insectivore.
Size: Roughly 30 centimetres long.
Known locations: USA, Montana - Hell Creek
Formation, Wyoming - Lance Formation.
Time period: Maastrichtian of the Cretaceous.
Fossil representation: Remains of two individuals,
consisting of lower jaw fragments and teeth.
What
might
have otherwise been an unassuming little lizard, has now become
famous worldwide for being named after the 44th president of the
United States, Barack Obama. The full name Obamadon
which means
‘Obama tooth’ is a reference to Barack Obama’s smile.
Fossils
of Obamadon were
originally assigned to Leptochamops
denticulatus, but a subsequent
review of the fossils brought the realisation that two of the jaw
fragments were from a unique and unknown genus. The teeth in the jaws
are similar to those of other insectivorous lizards, and comparison
to other genera has yielded a rough size estimate of about thirty
centimetres long from nose to tail.
Excluding
dinosaurs and
pterosaurs, other reptiles associated with the same time and
locations as Obamadon include the monitor
lizard-like Palaeosaniwa
and
the snake Cerberophis.
Further reading
- Mass extinction of lizards and snakes at the Cretaceous–Paleogene
boundary, Nicholas R. Longrich, Bhart-Anjan S. Bhullar
&
Jacques A. Gauthier - 2013.
- Correction for ‘Mass extinction of lizards and snakes at the
Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary’, by Nicholas R. Longrich, Bhart-Anjan S.
Bhullar, and Jacques A. Gauthier, which appeared in issue 52, December
26, 2012, of Proc Natl Acad Sci USA (109:21396–21401; first published
December 10, 2012; 10.1073/pnas.1211526110). - Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 110 (16).
- Nicholas R. Longrich, Bhart-Anjan S. Bhullar & Jacques A.
Gauthier - 2013.