Scientists called a recently discovered types of ancient amphibian after Kermit the Frog, bringing everybody’s favorite frog puppet to life in a new way. Sadly, Kermitops gratus was extinct long before people wandered the earth, making K. gratus Kermit’s distant forefather, in a manner.
In a freshly published term paper, researchers from George Washington University and the Field Museum of Nature detail how they discovered Kermitops gratus among the collection of fossils at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History. Paleontologist Nicholas Hotton III originally uncovered the fossilized skull in Texas in 1984.
The Smithsonian reports that Hotton and his team had discovered so many fossils during the 1984 Texas trip that this skull was not studied extensively. The proto-amphibian skull stayed in the Smithsonian’s collection till researchers Calvin So, Jason D. Pardo, and Arjan Mann chose to take a closer look.
Picture (A) and interpretive illustration (B) of Kermitops gratus, gen. et sp.
nov. (USNM PAL 407585) in dorsal view. Image thanks to Calvin So et. al. Upon taking a look at the fossilized skull, scientists determined its functions were so special that it represented a brand-new genus, now called Kermitops. The Smithsonian states that by analyzing the fossil, scientists could see that Kermitops gratus had actually an “lengthened, curved snout” similar to a salamander. Plus, the area behind the animal’s eyes was comparatively much shorter, possibly offering it a cartoonish quality.
The scientists estimate the fossil is 270 million years of ages.
A living types of frog is likewise likened to Kermit. The tiny glass frog Hyalinobatrachium dianae lives in Costa Rica, and looks like Kermit’s doppelgänger.
< img width="1200" height="853" src="https://savageventures.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/kermit-2.jpeg 1200w, https://savageventures.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/kermit-2.jpeg?resize=300,213 300w, https://savageventures.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/kermit-2.jpeg?resize=700,498 700w, https://savageventures.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/kermit-2.jpeg?resize=768,546 768w, https://savageventures.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/kermit-2.jpeg?resize=600,427 600w, https://savageventures.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/kermit-2.jpeg?resize=278,198 278w, https://savageventures.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/kermit-2.jpeg?resize=150,107 150w" alt="Glass frog"/ > Image of H. dianae thanks to Brian Kubicki et al. of the Costa Rican Amphibian Proving Ground
A newly found species of ancient amphibian has been named after Kermit the Frog. Here’s more about the discovery.