Pitt Undergraduate Discovers New Genus, Species of Ancient Meat-Eating Amphibian

Only the third 300-million-year-old amphibian skull fossil ever found, future schoolteacher Adam Striegel plans to inspire students with cast of fossil on his classroom desk

Adam Striegel and Charles Jones

While on a geology class trip nearly a year ago, a Pitt undergraduate came across a previously unknown genus and species of a 300-million-year-old amphibian. This academic year he has reveled in the attention he received—newspaper, radio, and television coverage worldwide—for his discovery.

Adam Striegel, a Pitt senior liberal studies major from White Oak, Pa., found a fossilized skull of an ancient meat-eating amphibian with a vicious set of teeth. The fossil is only the third 300-million-year-old amphibian skull ever found in the world, according to David Berman, curator of vertebrate paleontology at Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Museum of Natural History.

“In all my life, I’ve never found anything nearly as nice, and I’ve never seen anyone else find anything nearly as nice,” said Striegel’s instructor, Charles Jones, lecturer and undergraduate advisor in Pitt’s Department of Geology and Planetary Science, who last March led his class on a field trip to a newly cut road near the Pittsburgh International Airport. As Jones pointed out the different layers and types of rock that revealed the area’s history, he told his students to look for other clues to the environmental characteristics of the region as well, such as plant fossils.

Striegel picked up what appeared to be a grapefruit-size rock on which he thought he saw the imprint of a fern. But Striegel told himself, “Forget it. It’s just a little fern,” and dropped the object, figuring it wouldn’t interest Jones.

Later, as Striegel happened to be walking beside Jones, he reconsidered. He relocated the discarded object and showed it to his instructor.

Inspecting the find, Jones immediately saw that what Striegel had thought were fern fronds was actually a double row of jagged teeth—and the rock was actually a skull. “I knew at that moment that this would be the nicest vertebrate fossil that I would probably ever touch,” Jones said.

In May, Jones and Striegel took the fossil to the Carnegie Museum of Natural History. “The paleontologists were all very enthusiastic, jumping up and down and doing back flips because it’s just such a solid fossil—so well preserved, so uncrushed,” said Jones.

Coincidentally, Carnegie curator Berman had discovered one of the only other two such amphibian skulls of that age 20 years ago in New Mexico; the other was found in Kansas.

“I was quite startled, mainly because it’s so nicely preserved—it’s almost perfectly preserved,” said Berman. “It’s missing a few parts, probably only because it was broken off a complete skeleton.”
Scientists from the museum went back and searched the area where Striegel had found the fossil, hoping to locate the rest of the amphibian’s body, but they didn’t find it. “I hate to think that we left the rest of the animal in the roadside,” said Berman.

Striegel agreed to donate the fossil to the museum. After the museum’s scientists finish preparing it and publish their findings, the genus or species will likely be named “Striegeli.”

Striegel will receive a cast of the fossil. He intends to keep it on his desk when he becomes an elementary school teacher. “I would use it as a way to get the students interested when we get to fossils,” he says. “I think some kids would find it really interesting that there’s a whole species named after their teacher.”

Until then, though, he’s still a college student who has thoroughly enjoyed his 15 minutes of fame.

“I’m ecstatic,” Striegel said, beaming. “I love it. It’s great. I think it’s the coolest thing that ever happened to me.” • Karen Hoffmann