![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Allison-Sefcovic-and-Payton-Kohlberg-hold-epoxy-sculptures-of-new-species-Jeanerpeton-mazonensis-Cre.jpeg\")
Allison Sefcovic and Payton Kohlberg hold epoxy sculptures of new species Jeanerpeton mazonensis \u2013 Credit: Chicago Field Museum<\/p>\n Allison Sefcovic and Payton Kohlberg hold epoxy sculptures of new species Jeanerpeton mazonensis \u2013 Credit: Chicago Field Museum<\/p>\n
A newly identified frog-like creature that lived before the dinosaurs has been named by the student scientists who discovered it\u2014and they named it after their moms.<\/p>\n
Allison Sefcovic and Payton Kohlberg described the early amphibian that lived in what is now the United States over 300 million years ago, and then named it in honor of their mothers.<\/p>\n
As luck would have it, both mothers happen to be called Jean.<\/p>\n
Jeanerpeton mazonensis is said to mean, \u201cJean\u2019s crawler from Mazon Creek\u201d, and now describes the early ancestor of today\u2019s amphibians.<\/p>\n
It looked a salamander, but was squat and chubby like a frog, according to the study published in<\/a> the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.<\/p>\n J. mazonensis lived 309 million years ago, long before the dinosaurs, in the area around present day Chicago, which was a swampy river delta swarmed with early land-dwellers, giant insects, and strange swimming animals.<\/p>\n What was once a hot bed for new forms of life to flourish and evolve, became one of today\u2019s richest Carboniferous period fossil deposits<\/p>\n Because the Mazon Creek area was a river delta during the Carboniferous period, the researchers explained that sediment was quickly deposited on dead animals and plants\u2014a \u201cperfect recipe\u201d for fossilization.<\/p>\n Today, Mazon Creek is home to one of the world\u2019s best fossil sites, with fossils that preserve records of soft tissues and fine details that are normally lost.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat\u2019s really cool about Mazon Creek is that it preserves all of these unusual details\u2014things like toe pads and body outlines,\u201d said study co-author Ms. Sefcovic<\/a>, an intern at the Field Museum in Chicago.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the fossil of Jeanerpeton, we can see some of the scales on its back and tiny \u2018belly ribs\u2019 called gastralia.<\/p>\n \u201cYou can even see the eye impressions. It\u2019s so cool to see.\u201d<\/p>\n She says the findings point to a 309-million-year-old origin of classic traits we see in today\u2019s frogs and salamanders.<\/p>\n The fossil specimen was found several years ago by an amateur collector and donated to the Field Museum. At a glance, the fossil was classified as another species with a well-established presence in the region, Amphibamus grandiceps.<\/p>\n Sometimes, poorly-understood specimens are lumped together into what scientists call a \u201cwaste bin taxon\u201d, which serves as a metaphorical dumping ground for specimens that seem related but haven\u2019t been well-studied yet.<\/p>\n Study co-author Dr. Cam So, a postdoctoral researcher at the Field Museum, said: \u201cWhat we\u2019re finding from the Field Museum\u2019s collection are a bunch of things that historically were grouped together into this waste bin taxon known as Amphibamus grandiceps.<\/p>\n \u201cJeanerpeton is one of those species.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd now, we\u2019ve found enough evidence to support it being an anatomically distinct animal.<\/p>\n \u201cWith this publication, we officially pull Jeanerpeton out of this waste bin taxon.\u201d<\/p>\n Payton and Allison were part of last year\u2019s group of Women in Science Interns at the Field Museum.<\/p>\n They, along with Dr. So, are all part of the lab group of Arjan Mann, the Field\u2019s assistant curator of fossil fishes and early tetrapods.<\/p>\n \u201cBefore working in the Mann Lab, I didn\u2019t know much about paleontology,\u201d said Ms. Kohlberg.<\/p>\n \u201cMy experience at the Field and in the Women in Science program has made me more confident in my abilities to try something new.\u201d<\/p>\n FROGGY GOOD NEWS: \u201cIt is scary to take on a project when you feel like you don\u2019t know as much as you should. But I learned with my practical experience that it is possible to overcome that fear with hard work.\u201d<\/p>\n Dr. So says the description of J. mazonensis opens a door for researchers as they continue to chronicle the biodiversity that lived in Mazon Creek millions of years ago.<\/p>\n SEND THIS HOPPIN\u2019 TO YOUR MOMS \u2013 Share it on Social Media\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Allison Sefcovic and Payton Kohlberg hold epoxy sculptures of new species Jeanerpeton mazonensis \u2013 Credit: Chicago Field Museum…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":786103,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[2851,802,5122,60083,10978,32169,2929,90,56,54,55,4407],"class_list":["post-786102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-animals","tag-chicago","tag-cute","tag-frogs","tag-illinois","tag-mothers","tag-paleontology","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/786102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=786102"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/786102\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/786103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=786102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=786102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=786102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/A-model-of-Jeanerpeton-on-the-floor-of-the-forest-at-the-Field-Museum.jpeg\")
A model of Jeanerpeton on the floor of the forest at the Field Museum<\/p>\n
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