Researchers at La Brea Tar Pits have identified a previously unknown amphibian that lived in Ice Age Los Angeles. The extinct spadefoot toad, now named Spea labreae, represents the first new extinct amphibian species discovered from the famous fossil site. The find is exceptionally rare.
Only one other extinct Pleistocene amphibian has been discovered in North America (a tree frog from Florida). Although S. labreae was tiny compared with the mammoths and saber toothed cats associated with La Brea Tar Pits, its fossils could provide important clues about the climate and environmental changes that occurred near the end of the last ice age. The species is described in theJournal of Vertebrate Paleontology.
The discovery also highlights the new findings continuing to emerge from the Samuel Oschin Global Center for Ice Age Research at La Brea Tar Pits as the museum undergoes a historic transformation. An Unexpected Discovery in an Old Fossil Collection Lead author Dr. Alberto Cruz did not set out to discover a new species.
He began studying the Tar Pits' relatively understudied reptile and amphibian collections while working there as a Postdoctoral Fellow. Cruz remains a Research Associate at La Brea Tar Pits and works full time as Researcher for Mexico's SECIHTI Centro de Investigación Paleontológica Quinametzin (CIPAQ), Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (INAH). "I'm really more of a paleoecologist, paleogeographer, not a taxonomist," says Dr.
Cruz, who noticed unusual features in the Tar Pits specimens that distinguished S. labreae from known spadefoot toads. At first, Cruz wondered whether the unusual bones belonged to an animal that had been sick or injured during its lifetime, which would make them an example of paleopathology. Comparisons with modern spadefoot toads eventually convinced him that the differences represented something else entirely.
"I reviewed and reviewed a lot of specimens until I was convinced. I thought, 'Oh my gosh, this is a new species.' This material is originally from the 1950s, but when you study it again, you can find gold in these specimens. It's very cool." The fact that the fossils had been collected decades earlier shows how much scientific information can remain hidden in museum collections.
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