A sea creature that traveled Earth’s oceans long ago recently picked up a name – Syllipsimopodi bideni – after U.S. President Joe Biden.
According to the England’s Natural History Museum, this fossil octopus was a cephalopod that existed between 330 and 323 million years ago, longer ago than when dinosaurs roamed the planet around 245 and 66 million years ago. It also had 10 arms, while modern octopus and squid have eight. Its discovery suggests that “the ancestor of all squid and octopus had 10 arms.”
At under 5-in. long, the ancient cephalopod’s 10 arms all count as arms because they have suckers down their length.
“These arms would likely have been used to capture and manipulate prey, while using the fins on its body to [stabilize] itself while swimming,” said the Natural History Museum.
While “bideni” refers to Biden, the 46th president of the U.S., “Syllipsimopodi,” refers to the arms of the organism, which are derived from tissue that usually forms the foot in other mollusks.
Syllipsimopodi bideni was found in Bear Gulch Lagerstätte of Montana, said a study published in the Nature journal Tuesday, and has been known to scientists since the 1980s, when it was donated to the Royal Ontario Museum. However, it was only recently recognized as its own species.
Dr. Christopher Whalen, the lead author of the study, said Syllipsimopodi bideni is the “first and only known vampyropod to possess 10 functional appendages.”
In addition to having extra arms and being older than dinosaurs, the newly discovered species “pushes back the fossil record of the vampyropods, the group of cephalopods containing octopus and vampire squid, by over 82 million years,” said the Natural History Museum.
Vampyropods are a main group of cephalopods. This newly found species offers insight into how cephalopods developed over time.
Biden became a namesake for something else even before he was elected as president in 2020. Cornell University named the “Big Red, White, and Biden” ice cream flavor after him in 2017, when Biden serving as former President Barack Obama’s vice president.
Researchers decided to name the species after Biden to commemorate the start of his presidency and because they “were encouraged by his plans to address climate change and to fund scientific research,” Dr. Whalen said in an email, according to The New York Times.
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