An extinct species of lizard has been named after US President Barack Obama by a team of scientists at Yale and Harvard. According to a new paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the Obamadon gracilis was a small lizard, less than a foot long, that "probably" ate insects.

"It is a small polyglyphanodontian distinguished by tall, slender teeth with large central cusps separated from small accessory cusps by lingual grooves," Politico quoted the researchers, as writing in the journal.

According to the report, the Obamadon fossils were discovered in northwest northwest Montana. The species was probably wiped out in the mass-extinction astroid collision that was also responsible for killing off the dinosaurs.

The head of the research team, Yale''s Nicholas R. Longrich, denied any political impact in their name choice, the report said.

"We''re just having fun with taxonomy," Longrich said.