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scientists have found a new typee of
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animal that lived in Australia a really
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long time ago about 247 million years
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ago this discovery solves a mystery that
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has interested scientists since the
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1990s back then the remains of this
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animal were found by a person who used
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to raise chickens and was now retired
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this person found the old remains in New
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South Wales Australia there are only a
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few of these old animal fossils known
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around the world less than 10 this
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discovery is important because it might
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change what we know about how animals in
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Australia evolved over time the story of
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this discovery began when a man named
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mile mihalis was fixing a broken wall in
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his garden in a place called umina which
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is not far from Sydney he bought a big
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heavy piece of stone to fix the wall
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when he started cutting the stone he saw
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the shape of a creature that nobody knew
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about before Mr mahalis told the
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Australian Museum in Sydney about what
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he found in 1997 he gave them the fossil
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it was in a special room at the Museum
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where a scientist named llin Hart saw it
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for the first time when he was just a
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kid he loved dinosaurs and fossils 25
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years later when he was doing a special
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research project for school he got to
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study this F fil llan Hart and his team
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got really lucky to study this fossil
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they were already studying life from a
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long time ago about 250 million years
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ago and they got the chance to look at
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this fossil too what's amazing is that
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this fossil has a nearly complete
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skeleton that's very rare it even has
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the creatur's skin and some soft Parts
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still preserved around its body using
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the information from the fossil lackan
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Hart and his friends estimated that this
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ancient creature was about 1.5 M long
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and looked a bit like a
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salamander they gave it a special name
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arip Pon supinatus which means sand
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creeper on its back in Latin this animal
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was like a meat eater and lived in lakes
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and streams around cidney it was a tough
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kind of animal that managed to survive
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even when many other creatures died out
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like the dinosaurs there have only been
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three other fossils found like this in
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Australia this discovery tells us that
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Australia was a good place for animals
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to change and find safety after big
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events that killed many animals soon
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this special fossil will be shown at the
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Australian museum for everyone to see
