Feisty Newt-Sized Creature Named Wessie Roamed Isle of Wight 130 Million Years Ago
Posted on May 29, 2013
Scientists have discovered fossils of an extinct amphibian that lived on the Isle of Wight, also known as Dinosaur Island, about 130 million years ago. Scientist says the creature belonged to the extinct group albanerpetontids.
The creature has been named Wesserpeton, or Wessie for short. The name was used because its bones come from rocks known as the Wessex Formation. Scientists believe Wessie was feisty because broken, but healed jaws, were found among the bones. Wessie had scaly skin, sharp chisel-like teeth and likely burrowed into the ground.
Lead researcher, Dr Steve Sweetman, from the University of Portsmouth, said in a statement, "When I started looking for the little animals that lived with the dinosaurs a Wessie jaw was the first thing I found and I can still remember how excited I was. I also remember thinking that albanerpetontid was a heck of a mouthful for such a tiny creature. Of the 50 or so new four legged animals I have now found, Wessie bones are the most common and it was clearly well adapted to the ancient floodplain environment in which it lived."
The Wessie discovery was published here in the journal Acta Palaeontologica Polonica.