A newly-discovered amphibian which is blind has been named after Donald Trump because of the U.S. president’s inability to recognize climate change.
EnviroBuild, a UK construction company that prides itself on using only environmentally-friendly products, won the right to name the amphibian in an auction. The company, which has long supported Rainforest Trust, paid $25,000 to name new species of flora and fauna discovered in rainforests.
The $25,000 was the highest price paid at the auction and bought EnviroBuild the naming rights for the caecilian, a type of Panamanian amphibian, the company announced.
We have chosen to call Dermophis donaldtrumpi after Donald Trump.
The company said the name is apt because the newly-discovered species is a Caecilian, which is taken from the Latin Caecus meaning “blind.” The amphibian has 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 dermophis genus grows an extra layer of skin which their young use their teeth to peel off and eat, a behaviour known as dermatrophy. That too makes the U.S. president an appropriate choice as a new namesake.
As a method of ensuring their children survive in life Donald Trump prefers granting them high roles in the Oval Office.
The amphibians live almost entirely underground, believed to have lost their limbs at least 60 million years ago, as an adaptation to burrowing. The company made the analogy to Trump’s unwillingness to take action on climate change.
Burrowing its head underground helps Donald Trump when avoiding scientific consensus on anthropomorphic climate change and also appointed several energy lobbyists to the Environment Agency, where their job is to regulate the energy industry.
Caecilians have tentacles used in a sensory capacity to help them find prey which EnviroBuild connected to the Mueller investigation into Russian collusion in the U.S. election.
The company said there are also physical similarities between the president and the amphibian.
Being entirely limbless it is hard to determine whether caecilians have proportionate hands and their shiny skin is ringed with skin folds called annuli, generally grey, but with other genus’ often displaying more colour, even orange.
The opportunity to name a species is usually reserved for biologists who spend often painstaking years in the field so the company said the opportunity to name a species and make a point was too good an opportunity to miss.
Chris Redston, of Rainforest Trust UK, said,
Protecting the world’s remaining rainforests is now acknowledged as one of the most effective ways to mitigate climate change, yet every day nearly 70,000 acres of rainforest are destroyed forever. This is not only one of the main causes of climate change, but it is also having a devastating impact on endangered wildlife, indigenous communities and the planet’s weather patterns.”
