Students discover 309-million-year-old new species and name it after their mothers

An unusual discovery comes from Chicago’s Field Museum, where two students have identified an entirely new fossil species — a proto-amphibian that lived around 309 million years ago. Payton Kohlberg and Allison Sefcovic, as PEOPLE reports, are the lead co-authors of the new study describing Jeanerpeton mazonensis, an animal previously unknown to science.

The species’ name is a touching tribute: “Jeanerpeton” comes from the fact that both students’ mothers are named Jean, while the full name translates as “Jean’s creeper from Mazon Creek” — the famous fossil site in Illinois where the specimen was found.

The fossil had been discovered years earlier by an amateur collector, who donated it to the Field Museum. At the time, scientists classified it as Amphibamus grandiceps, another well-known ancient amphibian in the area. But a closer look, detailed in the study published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, showed the specimen had anatomical features distinct enough to be recognized as a species of its own.

Sometimes scientists group misunderstood fossils into what is known as a “waste bin taxon”, until further research separates them into accurate groups. “We now have enough evidence supporting that it’s an anatomically distinct animal,” says co-author Cam So, a postdoctoral researcher at the Field Museum.

The Mazon Creek conditions — once a swampy river delta during the Carboniferous period — preserved extraordinarily delicate details: the fossil shows scales on its back and small belly ribs (gastralia), even eye traces. According to the Field Museum, these details help scientists trace the traits of frogs and salamanders much further back in time.

The research was conducted within the Field Museum’s “Women in Science” program, which encourages young girls toward science and museums. The Museum itself describes the ancient creature with an unforgettable image: “imagine a low, stout salamander like a frog.”