"That's a great deal to make one word mean," Alice said in a thoughtful tone. "When I make a word do a lot of work like that," said Humpty Dumpty, "I always pay it extra."
Showing posts with label frogamander. Show all posts
Showing posts with label frogamander. Show all posts

Wednesday, 10 March 2010

Frogamander


In 1995 a fossil, later to be named Gerobatrachus , was discovered in Texas. When it was gradually removed from its rock and taken to be studied it was shown to be a missing link between frogs and salamanders. It had always been assumed that they shared a common ancestor but this was the first fossil to have been discovered that showed the link. Jason Anderson from the University of Calgary declared the fossil to be a ‘perfect little frogamander’. The word is so delightful that I have little doubt it will quickly be adopted into our language.