Obama is now a parasite: Team names flatworm after Obama

In what may be an honor, a backhanded compliment, an insult or all three, scientists have officially named a newly-discovered parasitic flatworm after President Barack Obama.

While some people naturally view parasites negatively, Thomas R. Platt, an authority on turtle parasites who discovered and described the new species, said those who study these organisms view them as wonderful and resilient.

They “face incredible obstacles to complete their journey (life cycle) and must contend with the immune system of the host in order to mature and reproduce,” he said in a press release.

The new species was officially dubbed Baracktrema obamai. Known to infect turtles, the flatworms are remote relatives and probably ancestors of the parasitic flatworms that cause the human disease schistosomiasis, a destructive ailment that afflicts millions of people in developing countries each year. Scientists who were behind the naming of the new species said that investigating the evolutionary background of this group of worms could broaden our knowledge of the origins and progression of schistosomiasis and help with new approaches for investigating how the disease causes damage.

Baracktrema obamai was the last new organism Platt identified before retiring as a professor from Saint Mary’s College in Indiana. Naming a species after a person is quite common and is normally seen as an honor. Platt said he was motivated to name his discovery after Obama when genealogy study traced his and the president’s families back to a typical ancestor.

“I have named a number of species after people I admire, from my father-in-law, my Ph.D. advisor, and good friends who are academics and/or amateur naturalists,” Platt said. “Baracktrema obamai will endure as long as there are systematists studying these remarkable organisms.”

In a report published by the Journal of Parasitology, Platt and his co-authors described how they examined the evolutionary background of the worm and its connection to other turtle parasites, including a close relative called Unicaecum, using a mixture of genetic and morphological data. Their outcomes affirmed the newly found worm should have its own genus,  segregating the new species from all prior found organisms.

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Image credit: White House

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