A New Reptile Species From Wales Named By Bristol Student
Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:
After resting for decades in the storerooms of the Natural History Museum in London, a fragmentary fossil from the Late Triassic (200 million years ago) has been named as a new species by a Masters' student at the University of Bristol.
Erin Patrick studied this creature for her MSc Palaeobiology dissertation research under the supervision of Professor Mike Benton and Dr. David Whiteside from Bristol's School of Earth Sciences.
The fossil is one of several novel species named from Pant-y-ffynnon Quarry in Wales. It was found in the 1950s but has been ignored since then because it was so tiny and hard to study. Most of the specimen is in two blocks of rock that fit together to form a lump that would sit on a child's hand. On the surface are small bones, but it revealed its treasures when it was scanned. While no skull is present, these blocks contain a number of vertebrae, ribs, one scapula, and tiny armor plates from its back.
Using CT scanning, these tiny bones (some mere millimeters wide and long) could be studied in three-dimensional detail, allowing Erin to examine fossils otherwise hidden in the rock.
When the fossil was found, its discoverers dubbed it "Edgar," but as a new species it has now been given the formal name Aenigmaspina pantyffynnonensis. The first part of the name refers to its enigmatic spine table, a feature of the vertebrae that supported the armor plates on the back. The second part of the name refers to Pant-y-ffynnon quarry in South Wales where it was found.
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