New Australian Dinosaur, Nearly Boiled Fish, Antarctic Amphibian and an Israeli Mosasaurus

There have been several prehistoric species that have been found recently, so let’s take a look at four of them.

The remains of a 95-million-year-old dinosaur found in Eromanga, Queensland, are believed to be from an entirely new species. Robyn Mackenzie, who is a Director and Palaeontologist for the Eromanga Natural History Museum, told 9News.com.au that “…it’s most probably going to be the nation’s youngest dinosaur.” She went on to say that this presumably new species was a type of plant-eating dinosaur called a sauropod.

So far, the researchers found vertebrae bones but are hoping to find more as they continue to dig around the site. A picture of the bone can be seen here.

(Not the sauropod found in Queensland)

Moving over to an Egyptian desert now, the remains of numerous fish that lived 56 million years ago were able to survive in hot water. The ancient fish lived in waters that reached temperatures of around 95 degrees Fahrenheit (35 degrees Celsius). The fossils belonged to over 12 groups of bony fish that included percomorph acanthomorphs (this group includes bass, bluegills, and walleye), moonfish from the Mene genus, bonytongues, and hatchetfish.

Over 60 bones belonged to the Mene – a genus that is still around today and lives in certain areas of the Pacific and Indian oceans. To put this into better perspective, the seasonal average water temperature of the Pacific Ocean is anywhere between 43 and 87 degrees Fahrenheit (6 to 31 degrees Celsius) and the Indian Ocean’s seasonal average temperature is between 68.7 and 86.4 degrees Fahrenheit (20.4 to 30.2 degrees Celsius).

Pictures of the fish can be seen here.

Now onto a much colder area, the first ever fossil of an amphibian was unearthed in Antarctica. Named Micropholis stowi, this salamander-sized amphibian lived during the Early Triassic Period (around 250 million years ago).

The Micropholis stowi was about the size of a salamander.

The majority of Micropholis stowi fossils have been found in South Africa so the one found in Antarctica is pretty significant in regards to learning how they were able to adapt to high-latitude environments. When this species was alive, Earth had a large landmass called Pangea which brought Antarctica and South Africa much closer together than they are today. Furthermore, it’s possible that they had similar temperatures which would make sense for the amphibian to travel from one place to the other and that it was probably great at adapting to many different types of habitats. A picture of the Micropholis stowi remains can be seen here.

And finally, a rare fossil belonging to an extinct marine reptile was found in the Havarim Stream in Israel’s southern Negev Desert and dates back approximately 70 million years. Researchers uncovered 16 vertebrae, a jawbone, and additional bones beneath a rock in the stream. It is believed that the remains were from a type of Mosasaurus that once inhabited the Tethys Ocean which is no longer present. They became extinct along with the dinosaurs around 66 million years ago.

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