FIELD TRIP Pa. student finds fossil of amphibian

The new species could be named after the student who found the fossil.
PITTSBURGH (AP) -- A freshman geology student on a field trip stumbled across the fossil of an oversize, salamanderlike creature with vicious crocodile-like teeth that lived about 300 million years ago, paleontologists said.
The University of Pittsburgh student picked up the softball-size rock containing the fossil on a visit to a fresh road cut near Pittsburgh International Airport, and thinking it was of little interest, threw it aside. On a walk back through the same area, he picked up the object again and showed it to class lecturer Charles Jones.
Jones spotted the teeth first, then the outline of a skull.
"It was immediately clear that this was rare," Jones said Monday.
What to call it?
Talks are under way about what to call the new species, starting with "Striegeli," after the student who found it, Adam Striegel.
Paleontologists with the Carnegie Museum of Natural History were stunned when the impeccably preserved fossil from a trematopid amphibian was unearthed this past spring in their own back yard. The discovery has set off a hunt for bigger finds that could help define a gray area in the Earth's history in what is now the northeastern United States.
Carnegie paleontologist Dave Berman knew exactly what the stone-encased skull fossil was because only two other fossils of the same family are known to exist -- and he found one of them more than a decade ago in New Mexico.
Paleontologists say the find is both a new species and a new genus, a broader category in the classification of plants and animals.
The rock encasing the fossil has been carefully chipped away by Berman and his team, revealing a boxy skull slightly larger than that of a large cat, but with a wicked set of choppers.
The cheeks are roughly at right angles to the top of the skull and there are long rows of spiky teeth along with three sets of "tusks" lining the roof of the mouth.
"It's new to science but we know it belongs to fairly terrestrial adapted amphibians living in the Pennsylvanian Period, about 300 million years ago," said Christopher Beard, curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Carnegie.
Similar to a big salamander
The species has some characteristics of a crocodile, but is closer to a massive salamander -- one that could tear its prey to shreds, said Berman, who is leading the research team. The creature is believed to have been 3 to 4 feet long.
Berman has written extensively on this family of amphibians since he found a similar fossil in north central New Mexico. But the most recent discovery may have substantially altered what scientists know, or thought they knew.
"This is much more advanced, meaning that they first appeared even further back then we had thought, perhaps another five or 10 million years, but that's still a guess right now," Berman said.
The Pittsburgh region is not considered a hotbed for vertebrate finds. Fossils of substance are rarely found in the Northeast because of lush forests and vegetation.
Paleontologists will fan out across the area where the skull fossil was found in the coming months as vegetation dies off, looking for the rest of the body, and possibly more.
"It was a lucky shot that kid found the fossil for sure, but at the same time the road construction in that area has revealed ancient layers of rock," Beard said. "It is now an optimal time to go back out. Ideally we may be able to reconstruct the entire ecosystem, plant and animal life of 300 million years ago, which right now is a matter of vagaries."
Striegel did not return phone calls Monday from The Associated Press.