2023-08-19 06:13:00
Chinese giant salamander aficionados are in heaven. Unearthed in the 1990s by a retired farmer living in Australia, a fossil ofArenaerpeton supinatus [un terme qui signifie “liane de sable couchée”] has just been officially named. 240 million years old, this fossil was exceptionally well preserved at the time of its discovery, according to the conclusions of a recent study published Thursday, August 3 in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.
Indeed, his skull was still attached to the rest of his skeleton, while soft tissues were visible in their entirety. This specimen is one of the (very) rare representatives of the family of chigutisauridés. More specifically, these are so-called amphibians temnospondyles brachyopoïdesand known to have managed to survive two mass extinctions, between the Lower Triassic and the Lower Cretaceous.
The astonishing longevity of the clade – which would therefore be an ancestor of the Chinese giant salamander – could reveal its secrets to the experts commissioned to examine the clues of the fossil.
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Understand the mechanisms of animal adaptation
These amphibians – which lived in humid environments and did not have scales, unlike lizards – are often at the heart of case studies. The objective for the researchers: to understand how animals manage to adapt to disasters that occur on a planetary scale.
Lachlan Hart, a paleontologist at the Australian Museum and the University of New South Wales, spoke about the discovery of this fossil. The scientist – who is also the lead author of this study – believed that it was a “unpublished example of a group of animals [désormais] turned off and […] who lived before and during the age of the dinosaurs”as shown in a academic paper.
For his part, Matthew McCurry, lecturer at the University of New South Wales and co-author of the study, judged that it was“one of the most important fossils [ayant été] found in New South Wales over the past thirty years”. And to add: “It is a key part of Australia’s fossil heritage.”
A new near-complete and articulated skeleton of a temnospondyl was found in Australia. Arenaerpeton supinatus is a new taxon that also has soft tissue preserved, one of the few from Australia. pic.twitter.com/AVSLAoX7vn
— Palaeontological Society of Southern Africa (@PalPssa) August 14, 2023
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Hard-to-find fossils
This discovery is all the more pleasing to the experts as the fossils of chigutisauridés are particularly difficult to find. According to the researchers, this family managed to survive in Gondwana. This is the supercontinent that was formed at the end of the Neoproterozoic (which extended from 1 billion to 542 million years ago). More recently, it had begun to divide during the Jurassic period (between 200 and 145 million years ago).
When it was discovered in the 1990s, this fossil was embedded in rock. This solid material had been cut for the purpose of building a garden retaining wall. Subsequently, the fossil was entrusted to the Australian Museum. Before this recent study was conducted, it had never been officially described.
Some time ago, a University of Kansas paleobiologist named Rhiannon LaVine unearthed a strange fossilized sea creature during digs in northern Utah. The conclusions of a study published in the scientific journal Historical Biology had taught us that it was a species of annelid.
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