Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.It's seen as a sign of respect awarded by scientists around the world searching for new species of plant and animal life. Now Barack Obama has the honour of having not one, but three species named after him.
Today the newly discovered Obamadon gracilis, an extinct lizard species from 65 million years ago, joined the Etheostoma obama spangled darter fish and Caloplaca obamae lichen, with a name in honour of the 44th President of the United States.
The lizard was discovered by scientists from Harvard and Yale universities who were examining fossils from across America in an attempt to understand how some lizards had managed to escape the complete extinction that killed off the dinosaurs.
Though the process of naming a newly discovered species is not always without risks. Yale paleontologist Nicholas Longrich, one of the team who discovered the new species, described his concerns as they submitted their paper on the species for peer-review in July, four months before the upcoming US Presidential election "I was seriously thinking, if the election had gone the other way, I would have yanked it."
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments