“During their work in southern Kazakhstan, paleontologists discovered fragments of cervical and body vertebrae from salamander-proteids. Later, they conducted a CT scan, created a 3D reconstruction of the vertebrae, and analyzed them,” reported the St. Petersburg State University (SPbGU).
The researchers found that the vertebrae are identical to those discovered by paleontologist Lev Nesov in the last century. This means that the mysterious “little frog” has been rediscovered.
This discovery has allowed Russian scientists and their colleagues from the Kazakhstan Institute of Zoology to develop a new hypothesis regarding the origin of proteids. Paleontologists believe that the Kazakh bishaara baka lived on our planet at the same time as dinosaurs, approximately 85 million years ago.
The closest relative of the bishaara baka that has survived to this day is the European proteus, also known as the dragon olm. Despite its proud name, this “dragon” bears little resemblance to the fearsome creatures from “Game of Thrones”: it lives in caves, is blind, and has a pale pink coloration.
“Although European proteuses are harmless, move very slowly, and do not exceed 40 centimeters in length, they were historically associated with misfortunes by people. Previously, during floods, proteuses would be brought to the surface with underground waters, leading people to consider encounters with this species, which was nicknamed the dragon olm, as a harbinger of misfortunes and disasters,” reported scientists from SPbGU.
Earlier, we reported that two unknown species of spiders were found in Kazakhstan.