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is notable for more than just its namesake puppet persona. The early fossil record of amphibians and their ancestors is largely fragmentary, which makes it difficult to understand how frogs, salamanders and their kin originated. Adding relatives likeinto the fold is essential for fleshing out the early branches of the amphibian family tree. Credit: Brittany M. Hance, Smithsonian
“Using the name Kermit has significant implications for how we can bridge the science that is done by paleontologists in museums to the general public,” So said. “Because this animal is a distant relative of today’s amphibians, and Kermit is a modern-day amphibian icon, it was the perfect name for it.
In 2021, Arjan Mann, a postdoctoral paleontologist at the museum and a former Peter Buck Fellow, was sifting through Hotton’s trove of Texas fossils when one specimen labeled as an early amphibian caught his eye. Arjan Mann , a Smithsonian postdoctoral paleontologist and former Peter Buck Fellow, and Calvin So , a doctoral student at George Washington University, holding the fossil skull ofin front of the Kermit the Frog puppet display in the “Entertainment Nation” exhibition at the National Museum of American History. Credit: James D. Tiller and James Di Loreto, Smithsonianis notable for more than just its namesake puppet persona.
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