Tiny toad, big discovery: New ice age amphibian found in La Brea Tar Pits collection

Key Points:

• Researchers at the La Brea Tar Pits and Museum in Los Angeles have discovered an extinct ice age amphibian, the spadefoot toad (Spea labreae), one of only two such amphibians found in the U.S. from that era.
• The discovery, made accidentally during a review of amphibian collections, was published recently in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology and enhances understanding of climate conditions at the end of the last ice age.
• Lead researcher Dr. Alberto Cruz identified the new species by comparing fossil bones from the 1950s with specimens from other natural history collections, highlighting the value of re-examining old collections.
• Amphibians like the spadefoot toad are important for studying past climates because they are sensitive to environmental changes and tend to stay localized, providing insights into historical ecological shifts.
• The fragile nature of amphibian skeletons makes their fossils rare, making this discovery significant; museum curators emphasize that ongoing research at the La Brea Tar Pits is likely to yield more important findings.