A secret fossil unintentionally uncovered by an Australian chicken farmer in the 1990s has lastly been determined as a stout amphibian with tusks and “gnarly teeth”, researchers stated Wednesday.
The 240 million-year-old fossil was found by Mihail Mihailidis as he cleaned down a huge sandstone piece that was initially predestined to endedupbeing a maintaining wall for his garden.
Donated to the Australian Museum in 1997, the near-pristine specimen has puzzled researchers who have labored for nearly 30 years to figure out what kind of monster it belonged to.
University of New South Wales paleontologist Lachlan Hart stated it had now been determined as a “heavyset” amphibian determining 1.2 meters (nearly 4 feet) from snout to tail—resembling a cross inbetween a crocodile and a giant salamander.
He stated it mostlikely preyed on freshwater fish, utilizing its “pretty gnarly teeth” and “a set of fang-like tusks on the roofing of its mouth”.
“We puton’t frequently discover skeletons with the head and body still connected, and the soft tissue conservation is an even rarer incident,” Hart stated.
The animal hasactually been offered the clinical name of “Arenaerpeton supinatus”, which scientists stated approximately equated to “supine sand climber”.
It comes from an extinct group of animals understood as the “temnospondyls”, Hart stated, which wandered the world priorto the dino