Discovery on Svalbard's Bear Island Rewrites Prehistoric Limits

Paleontologists have identified the remains of a previously unknown species of Triassic amphibian, Arctobatrachus urdensis, on the Svalbard archipelago. The discovery reveals that this predator, which lived approximately 250 million years ago, reached nearly three meters in length, redefining known size limits for plagiosaurids. The findings were published in the journal Papers in Palaeontology. Researchers determined that Arctobatrachus urdensis is the largest representative of the plagiosaurid group—aquatic predators that hunted along the bottoms of lakes and rivers. Morphologically, the species featured a wide, flattened body with a back protected by bony plates. Characteristic Data Habitat Period Triassic (251–201 million years ago) Body Length Approximately 2.7 meters Discovery Site Bear Island, Svalbard Chronology of Discovery The fossils were first spotted in the summer of 1948 by a biological expedition from the Universities of Cambridge and Leicester. The remains were located on Bear Island at an altitude of 430 meters above sea level, where wind and water erosion had exposed fragments of the skeleton. Due to a lack of appropriate equipment and concerns that the harsh Arctic climate would destroy the site, the team collected only soil samples.