Los Angeles has a new celebrity, and it is tiny, warty, and more than 10,000 years old. Researchers at La Brea Tar Pits have identified a brand-new extinct amphibian species from Ice Age Los Angeles: a spadefoot toad named Spea labreae. It is the first extinct amphibian ever described from Rancho La Brea — and only the second extinct Pleistocene amphibian found anywhere in North America.
The discovery grew out of a fresh look at the Tar Pits’ understudied amphibian and reptile collection, which had not been carefully assessed in nearly 30 years. Study lead Dr. Alberto Cruz, a postdoctoral fellow at La Brea Tar Pits, compared the fossils with 80 specimens at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County and UC Berkeley before confirming the toad was new to science. At first, he thought the unusual bones belonged to a sick or injured animal — then the evidence pointed to a whole new species.
The same study also recorded the first Mexican burrowing toad at the Tar Pits, 2,500 kilometers north of where its relatives live today — a clue to how climate change has shifted species across millennia. “We are still finding new things at La Brea Tar Pits, even after a century of ongoing excavation and research,” says Dr. Emily Lindsey, the site’s curator and excavation director. “There is definitely more to come.”
Proof that big surprises come in small packages — and that the Tar Pits still have secrets to share. Happy City News loves a discovery like this.
Photo: La Brea Tar Pits
