Obama Gets a Fish Named After Him

November 27th, 2012 4:33 PM

A new species of fish was recently discovered, and it's been named after Barack Obama.

The Bulletin of Alabama Museum of Natural History revealed four presidents and a vice president have had their names given to recently identified fish.

Saint Louis University's Steven R. Layman and Geosyntec Consultants' Richard L. Mayden's "Morphological Diversity and Phylogenetics of the Darter Subgenus Doration (Percidae: Etheostoma), with Descriptions of Five New Species" claimed Obama, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, Teddy Roosevelt, and Al Gore were so honored because they promoted conservation and environmental protection.

According to OutdoorLife.com, "All of the newly named species belong to Etheostoma, a genus of small – most under 5 inches - freshwater fish in the family Percidae known for beautiful color patterns."

The common names of these fish that dwell in the waters of Tennessee, Missouri, Arkansas, Kentucky, Kansas and Oklahoma are Highland darter (Etheostoma teddyroosevelt), the Bluegrass darter (Etheostoma jimmycarter), the Beaded darter (Etheostoma clinton), the Cumberland darter (Etheostoma gore) and the Spangled darter (Etheostoma obama).