The jumping frogs of Coconino County.Two paleontologists have discovered the oldest fossil frog to date, shedding new light on how these amphibians amphibians members of the animal class Amphibia. Includes frogs, toads, newts, salamanders and cecilians all capable of living on land or in water. evolved their jumping prowess. The new species, Prosalirus bitis, hails from Coconino County, Arizona Coconino County is a county located in the north central part of the U.S. state of Arizona. It is part of the Flagstaff, Arizona Metropolitan Statistical Area. As of the 2000 census its population was 116,320. The county seat is Flagstaff. . Neil H. Shubin of the University of Pennsylvania (body, education) University of Pennsylvania - The home of ENIAC and Machiavelli. http://upenn.edu/. Address: Philadelphia, PA, USA. in Philadelphia and Farish A. Jenkins Jr. of Harvard University Harvard University, mainly at Cambridge, Mass., including Harvard College, the oldest American college. Harvard College Harvard College, originally for men, was founded in 1636 with a grant from the General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. describe the 190-million-year-old specimen in the Sept. 7 Nature. Unlike protofrogs from the earlier Triassic period, this Prosalirus skeleton's pelvis is designed for transmitting the jumping force of the hind limbs to the rest of the body. The tail of its amphibian amphibian, in zoology amphibian, in zoology, cold-blooded vertebrate animal of the class Amphibia. There are three living orders of amphibians: the frogs and toads (order Anura, or Salientia), the salamanders and newts (order Urodela, or Caudata), and the ancestors evolved into a short bone that fits entirely inside the pelvis. The discovery of such an ancient frog in North America upends the idea that frogs first developed and diversified in the southern continents. According to Shubin, the ability to jump may have benefited the 5-centimeter-long Prosalirus by enabling it to escape the larger predators also preserved in the same rocks. |
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