New Ice Age Toad Species Discovered in La Brea Tar Pits Fossil Collection
Researchers reexamined decades-old museum fossils and identified Spea labreae, only the second U.S. ice age amphibian known to science.
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3 Articles
Tiny toad in Los Angeles tar pits turns out to be only second ice age amphibian found in the US
A long-overlooked fossil in a well-known Los Angeles collection has revealed something unexpected. Scientists at the La Brea Tar Pits and Museum say the specimen belongs to a previously unknown extinct spadefoot toad from the ice age, making it only the second amphibian from that period ever identified in the United States. What happened? For decades, the La Brea Tar Pits' amphibian and reptile collection included delicate fossils that had recei…
A small fossil, neglected for decades in the La Brea Tar Pits, has been revealed to belong to a previously unknown species. Researchers have identified *Spea labreae*, an extinct sword-like frog, as the first new Ice Age amphibian species discovered in Los Angeles. Discovery of the fossil in La Brea Tar Pits: The fossil that led to the identification of *S. labreae* is an incomplete sacro-urostyle, a bone located at the base of the spine in frog…
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