Artistic reconstruction of the found waterfall
- author, Hannah Ritchie – BBC News
- stock, Correspondence
- Report from Sydney
Scientists have discovered a new type of amphibian that lived in Australia about 247 million years ago.
The discovery ends a mystery that has occupied researchers since the 1990s, when the creature’s fossilized remains were discovered by a retired chicken farmer in New South Wales, Australia.
Fewer than 10 fossils of this lizard-like amphibian have been identified worldwide.
Experts say the discovery could “rewrite the evolution of amphibians in Australia”.
A broken garden wall at his home in Omena – a 90-minute drive north of Sydney – led Michael Michelitz to discover the unusual fossil almost three decades ago.
A retired poultry farmer bought 1.6 tonnes of sandstone slabs to fix the wall problem. But as he cut through the outer layers of the stone, the immortal features of the faceless creature revealed themselves.
Michelitz contacted the Australian Museum in Sydney to tell them about his discovery, and in 1997 he handed over the fossil to the museum.
In a temperature-controlled chamber, Lachlan Hart – the paleontologist who managed to decipher the fossil remains – saw them for the first time as a child.
“I was obsessed with dinosaurs,” Hart says. “So the 12-year-old me saw that fossil on display in 1997. And then 25 years later it became part of my Ph.D. It was crazy.”
Hart says it was “purely by chance” that led his team studying life in the Triassic period in Australia, about 250 million years ago, to provide the fossil for identification.
Remarkably, the fossil cast contains a “complete skeleton,” which is almost unheard of.
“The head is still attached to the body, and the skin and fat tissue around the body’s exoskeleton is fossilized – all of which make the fossil a very rare find,” he added.
Based on these data, Hart and his colleagues estimate that the amphibian was about 1.5 meters long and had a salamander-like body shape. The newly identified species is named Arenaphyton sabinatus, which means “sand crawler on its back” in Latin.
Scientists say carnivorous amphibians once lived in Sydney’s freshwater lakes and creeks. The species belongs to the family Timnospondyli: a family of able-bodied amphibians that survived two of Earth’s five mass extinction events, including a series of volcanic eruptions that wiped out 70-80 percent of the dinosaurs 66 million years ago.
Only three other fossils of the “Temnospondelli” family have been successfully identified in Australia.
The findings, published on Tuesday, suggest that Australia was an ideal place for animals to evolve and take refuge after mass extinctions, Hart says.
The exceptional fossil will go on full display at the Australian Museum later this year.
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