Wriggling creature which only sees in black and white named after Donald Trump
A wriggling amphibian which can only see the world in black and white and which literally buries its head in the sand has been named after President Donald Trump.
Envirobuild, a sustainable housing company, bid £19,800 at an auction for the right to name the worm-like Panamanian amphibian Dermophis donaldtrumpi. The company says that it chose to name the creature after Trump because of Donald Trump’s policies on climate change and how both the amphibian and the president tend to see things in black and white.
The company wrote in a blog post:
Caecilians is taken from the Latin Caecus meaning “blind”, and have rudimentary eyes which can only detect light or dark.
Capable of seeing the world only in black and white, Donald Trump has claimed that climate change is a hoax by the Chinese.
The amphibians live almost entirely underground, believed to have lost their limbs at least 60 million years ago, as an adaptation to burrowing.
Burrowing its head underground helps Donald Trump when avoiding scientific consensus on anthropogenic climate change and also appointed several energy lobbyists to the Environment Agency, where their job is to regulate the energy industry.
Envirobuild also drew attention to a similarity between the creature and Donald Trump’s approach to looking after their offspring.
The company said:
The dermophis genus grows an extra layer of skin which their young use their teeth to peel off and eat, a behaviour known as dermatrophy. As a method of ensuring their children survive in life Donald Trump prefers granting them high roles in the Oval Office.
The name will still have to undergo peer review by biologists, the company says – but several other animals are already named after US presidents.
The company added:
As Demorphus donaldtrumpi is an amphibian, it is particularly susceptible to the impacts of climate change and is therefore in danger of becoming extinct as a direct result of its namesake’s climate policies.
