President Obama has been honoured with a kind of immortality. One new species of blood fluke and turtles in Malaysia will probably remember him forever. A parasitic flatworm, called Baracktrema obamai, will share its name with the President of the United States.
A scientist, Thomas Platt, a turtle disease expert who discovered the new species shortly before his recent retirement from St. Mary's College, is said to be the fifth cousin twice removed of President Obama. He clarified that the name is supposed to honor the President.
He has a great respect for President Obama as well as parasites - even if it sounds strange. He does have a point, though.
They "face incredible obstacles to complete their [life cycles] and must contend with the immune system of the host in order to mature and reproduce," he said.
B. obamai is described as sporting a long, thread-like body and has so far inhabited two freshwater turtles---the black marsh turtle (Siebenrockiella crassicollis) and southeast Asian box turtle (Cuora amboinensis). It is just as thick as human hair.
The scientists located tens to hundreds of fluke eggs in the turtles' lung alveoli. These are the tiny sacs in which the blood makes the gas exchange between oxygen and carbon dioxide. These flukes make the turtles cough, but how the eggs are able to come outside the turtles to hatch eggs and infect new hosts has not been made clear.
The entire cycle of baptism and naming appears to be interesting. "I have named a number of species after people I admire, from my father-in-law, my PhD adviser, 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."
Surprisingly, Barack Obama will certainly not be forgotten by seven creatures in the parasitological world, who have all been named after him. Not only sad and suffering turtles infected with his namesake parasites, but other creatures too, such as fish (Etheostoma obama), a trapdoor spider (Aptostichus barackobamai), a lichen species (Caloplaca obamae) and an extinct insect-eating lizard (Obamadon gracilis) will recall him.
It's not clear whether Obama wants to remember it, even though Platt has made up his mind for him. "It is a unique component of the diversity of life on this planet," Platt said. "Anyone should consider it an honor."
No wonder President Barack Obama seems to be in a hurry to leave office
B. obamai has been introduced by scientists in the August issue of the Journal of Parasitology.
