:) How science, field trips, and swift shipping services met

Meat-eating amphibian predates dinosaurs: Named after shipping service, Fedexia survived ancient climate shift

An interesting "rock" initially tossed aside at a FedEx site near Pittsburgh International Airport turns out to be the skull of a meat-eating, early terrestrial amphibian that lived 70 million years before the first dinosaurs emerged, according to a paper released Monday in the Annals of Carnegie Museum.

The approximately 300-million-year-old carnivorous amphibian has been named Fedexia striegeli. The genus name refers to the well-known shipping service, while the species name recognizes Adam Striegel, who spotted the animal's well-preserved, 5-inch-long (12.5-centimeter-long) fossil skull while he was a University of Pittsburgh student on a field trip.

Striegel originally threw it aside, thinking it wasn't important. But then he and class lecturer Charles Jones noticed its pointy teeth and tusks, so the skull was brought to experts at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History.

See what field trips to FedEx will get you?

Trying to save animals from a deadly fungus in the wild

Scientists Build an Ark To Save Jungle Amphibians

A fungus called chytrid has been spreading for the past 20-30 years through streams in Central America, killing up to 80% of the amphibian population and eradicating some species completely. A couple established a centre for capturing amphibians from the wild in the hopes of establishing breeding programmes to ensure the species survive towards a time when chytrid can be controlled and the animals can be re-introduced into the wild.