Parasite Named After US President Barack Obama

A lot of people will be very flattered about having someone named after him, but will the president of the free world feel the same for having a parasite named after him?

BREAKING NEWS
Newly discovered parasitic worm is named after Obama introducing BARACKTREMA OBAMAI https://t.co/L9Xmkdvo0Z

— Walter Cronkite (@CronkiteSays) September 9, 2016

A team of American parasitologists recently discovered a new species of flatworms that can infect turtles in Malaysia. These parasitic worms are so unusual and distinctive that the team actually named a new genus to include it in the list of new species, the first time such action has been taken for the group of turtle parasites in the last 21 years.

In honor of the new discovery, the researchers named the parasitic worm after the United States President, Barack Obama -- calling it Baracktrema obamai. Obama, according to PR Web, is a distant relative of one of the study's co-authors.

Similarly, the parasites are distat relatives and are likely ancestors to parasitic flatworms. They are suspected to be the cause of a human disease called schistosomiasis, which debilitates millions of people from developing countries every year. By studying the evolutionary history of this particular group of wrms, we could braden our understanding of the origins and evolution of the disease. Another aspect of the study also emphasized how freshwater turtles have been increasingly vulnerable to poaching and habitat loss, and many of their species are now endangered.

Many may view parasites in a negative light, but in a scientific outlook, they are actually beautiful and resiliet. Dr. Thomas R. Platt, an authority on turtle parasites who studied the species said that these parasites “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."

Baracktrema obamai was the last organism that Platt found before retiring, and despite being named after a parasite, this move is acually an honor. Platt was inspired to name his discovery after the president of the United States because a genealogy research traced his and the president's families back to a common ancestor. He has previously named other species after people he admired, like his father-in-law, PhD advisor, and even good friends. For him, it is an honor to have named the last species after the POTUS, saying that “Baracktrema obamai will endure as long as there are systematists studying these remarkable organisms.”