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Get the Popular Science daily newsletter\ud83d\udca1<\/p>\n
Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n By signing up, you confirm you are 16+, will receive newsletters and promotional content and agree to our Terms of Use<\/a> and acknowledge the data practices in our Privacy Policy<\/a>. You may unsubscribe at any time.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/section>\n Paleontologists sifting through the archives of Los Angeles\u2019 La Brea Tar Pits have discovered a new species of extinct Ice Age amphibian. While the deposit is famous for its direwolves<\/a>, saber-toothed cats<\/a>, mammoths<\/a>, and other long-gone animals of the most recent ice age, much rarer creatures are lurking in the fossil deposits. This newly discovered spadefoot toad named Spea labreae<\/em> isonly the second Pleistocene amphibian species ever found in North America. The new frog is described in a study published today in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a great example of how we\u2019re still finding new things at La Brea Tar Pits, even after a century of ongoing excavation and research,\u201d Dr. Emily Lindsey,<\/a> a study co-author and Curator and Excavation Site Director at the Samuel Oschin Center for Global Ice Age Research at La Brea Tar Pits, said in a statement<\/a>. \u201cThere\u2019s definitely more to come.\u201d<\/p>\n Despite digging through the Tar Pits\u2019 understudied collections of amphibians and reptiles, study co-author Dr. Alberto Cruz<\/a>, wasn\u2019t looking for new species.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m really more of a paleoecologist, paleogeographer, not a taxonomist,\u201d Cruz said in a statement. Cruz is a Research Associate at the La Brea Tar Pits and a full time researcher for Mexico\u2019s SECIHTI-Centro de Investigaci\u00f3n Paleontol\u00f3gica Quinametzin (CIPAQ), and Instituto Nacional de Antropolog\u00eda e Historia (INAH).<\/p>\n He noticed the distinctive features that separate S. labreae<\/em> from known spadefoot toads. Initially, he thought that this must have been an example of paleopahtology<\/a>\u2014finding a specimen that had been sick or injured during its life. A closer look and comparing the specimens to modern spadefoot toads made it clear that this probably was not a sick frog.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI reviewed and reviewed a lot of specimens until I was convinced. I thought, \u2018Oh my gosh, this is a new species.\u2019 This material is originally from the 1950s, but when you study it again, you can find gold in these specimens,\u201d Cruz said. \u201cIt\u2019s very cool.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The smaller reptiles and amphibians that Cruz studies can tell scientists more about ancient climate and environmental change than the larger mammals we typically associate with the Ice Age<\/a> and La Brea Tar Pits.\u00a0<\/p>\n Amphibians don\u2019t travel very far within their lifetimes, and are also very sensitive to environmental conditions. This limited movement and extreme sensitivity makes them excellent climate proxies. The presence or absence of amphibians can help scientists pinpoint changes in climate at a much smaller scale.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIf you change the environment, you change the vegetation, the climate is warmer or colder, it affects these animals directly,\u201d said Cruz.\u00a0<\/p>\n However, frogs, toads, salamanders and other amphibians are often missing from the fossil record. Their fragile skeletons are often crushed by the ravages of time, making the discovery of a small amphibian like S. labreae<\/em> an extraordinary find.<\/p>\n To identify the new species, Cruz carefully examined the bones inside the La Brea Tar Pits amphibians collection<\/a> for the first time in almost 30 years. After making detailed observations of their shape and size, Cruz compared Tar Pits amphibians to 80 specimens at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County and the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology at the University of California, Berkeley.\u00a0<\/p>\n In addition to the new spadefoot toad, the study identifies the first record of the Mexican burrowing toad<\/a> (genus Rhinophrynus<\/em>) from the southwestern United States. These still-living toads are no longer found in Los Angeles, and their nearest populations are nearly 1,500 miles away in southern Mexico. According to the team, this significant shift in range and S. labreae\u2019s extinction<\/em> sheds light on the nuanced story of how the environment changed at the end of the last ice age 10,000 years ago.\u00a0<\/p>\n Since amphibians are the vertebrates that are most threatened<\/a> by today\u2019s human-caused climate change<\/a>, specimens like these that saw previous climate upheaval can help scientists protect today\u2019s amphibians.<\/p>\n \t\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n 2026 Popular Science Home of the Future Awards<\/p>\nA 1950s discovery in the 2020s<\/h2>\n
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Why frogs are a big deal for paleontology\u00a0<\/h2>\n
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Amphibians past, present, and future<\/h2>\n
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