9 Aug 2023

Giant fossil found on a chicken farm identified after 30 years

From Afternoons, 1:45 pm on 9 August 2023

A fossil discovered on an Australian chicken farm three decades ago has finally been identified as an entirely new species!

After all this time palaeontologists say the fossil is of a new type of Triassic amphibian that stalked the freshwater streams of the Sydney basin 240 million years ago.

Professor Lachlan Hart, now a UNSW pHd student first saw the fossil as a 12 year old at an exhibition - he's now part of the team that's finally identified the new species. He speaks to Jesse.

UNSW PhD candidate and Australian Museum researcher Lachlan Hart with the fossilised remains of Arenaerpeton supinatus

Photo: Richard Freeman