The prehistoric ancestor of amphibians was named Kermit the Frog

One of them crawled across the rain-soaked ground in what is now Texas more than 270 million years ago, probably feeding on fast-moving insects. The other endeared him to millions as the banjo-playing itinerant newscaster and reluctant lover of Miss Piggy, known as Kermit the Frog.

Now, they share a name.

Scientists announced Thursday that they have named a newly identified ancient ancestor of modern amphibians Kermitops gratus in honor of Kermit the Frog.

Although it couldn't sing the “Rainbow Connection” song or deliver the news, the salamander-like species seemed to bear a striking resemblance to the beloved doll, said Calvin Su, Ph.D. student in the Department of Biological Sciences at George Washington University, who helped name it.

The combination of bones in the eye socket gave him a “bug-eyed appearance” like Kermit, and his three-centimetre-long, slightly crushed fossilized skull appears to have a “lopsided smile”, reminiscent of Kermit's shy smile, Mx. So he said.

“It really looked like Kermit was smiling at us,” Meeks said. So, he is the lead author of a paper describing the new species, which was published Thursday in the journal Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. The name combines “Kermit” with the Greek suffix “-ops”, which means face.

The fossilized skull was discovered near Kemp Lake in Texas in 1984, Mx. So he said. This piece remained in the collections of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington until 2021, when one of Mx. So my co-authors, Arjan Mann, and a few other paleontologists noticed it and realized it might be a new species, Mx. So he said.

Mix. So he said the snout was longer than the back of its skull, which was very different from other amphibian fossils of its kind. The shape may have made this species particularly adept at catching fast-moving insects for food, Mx. So he said.

“It increases our knowledge of the diversity of amphibians at that time,” they said. And the name is Mix. Therefore, it can arouse people's interest in prehistoric creatures other than dinosaurs.

“I wanted to attract attention and change the way people approach science and fossils,” said Mx. So he said. “It would be really great if a lot more people would join the investigation into the origins of amphibians because it's an area of ​​the tree of life that hasn't been well studied.”

This species was just the latest scientific discovery to emerge from obscurity and bear a famous name.

Last year, scientists at a German research institute discovered that certain bacterial compounds kill fungi and named them keanomycin, in honor of actor Keanu Reeves in the title role in the thriller “John Wick.”

Scientists named the insects after Arnold Schwarzenegger and RuPaul, while a type of dinosaur was named Dracorex hogwartsia, or the Dragon King of Hogwarts, in honor of Hogwarts School from the Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling. according to Natural History Museum in London.

The dolls also served as an inspiration. The trilobites are named after the scowling duo Statler and Waldorfand A The spider that lives in the tube The museum said it was named in honor of Gonzo.

Although Mx. Because of their enthusiasm for new genres, they said they weren't always the biggest fans of the Muppets. “Personally, I thought some of the dolls were a little creepy,” Mx So said.