2 million-year-old super rare frog fossils discovered in Argentina

Argentinian paleontologists discovered the fossil record of a rare frog species that lived 2 million years ago - in the late Pilocene, early Pleistocene.

According to AFP, the findings were published by the science and technology agency of La Matanza National University, Argentina.

"We know very little about prehistoric toads and frogs , " said Dr. Federico Agnolin, a researcher at the Argentine Museum of Natural Science.

"Frogs and toads are very sensitive to climate and environmental changes, so they are an important source of data to learn about climate in the past," Agnolin added.

The fossil was discovered 44 meters deep in the process of digging a well in San Pedro, 180 km north of the capital, Buenos Aires.

Tiny fossilized bones of frogs that lived 2 million years ago. (Photo: AFP).

It consists of a small arm bone of a small amphibian, closely related to horned frogs and tree frogs, according to Agnolin.

Although the size of the fossil is very small, scientists can still identify the species because Anuras - the amphibians including frogs and toads - have a unique structure in the bone part of the arm that forms the elbow joint. , help them become recognizable.

This special structure gives the frog a flexible and flexible movement.

"The discovery of a new type of amphibian living in the late Pilocene, early Pleistocene is a special event in Argentine paleontology, " Agnolin said.

The Pliocene is the second century of the Neogene period in the New Borne, beginning about 2.6 million years ago. The Pliocene takes place after the Miocene and immediately after it is the Pleistocene.