[ad_1]
Stephanie Abramowicz / Daza et al / Science / PA WireIllustration of a 99 million year old amphibian with tongue in a sling style
Get a load of this guy’s tongue! What the hell is it? Is it a frog? A chameleon? A salamander? No, it’s a “strange” 99 million year old amphibian called the albanerpetontid! This is a mouthful!
Scientists have discovered fossils of the prehistoric creature in Myanmar and believe it is the oldest evidence of a slingshot-style language.
They say these armored animals were “sitting and waiting predators” who grabbed their prey with a bullet of their “ballistic tongues”.
Although they had lizard-like claws, scales, and tails, researchers believe albanerpetontids were not reptiles, but were part of the amphibian family, such as frogs and newts.
The findings, published in the journal Science, change the way scientists thought the tiny animals ate, as albanerpetontids were previously thought to be underground burrowers.
This discovery adds a super cool piece to the puzzle of this dark group of strange little animals
Edward Stanley / Florida Museum of Natural HistoryHow beautiful is this albanerpetontid fossil skull scan ?!
“Knowing they had this ballistic language gives us a whole new understanding of this entire lineage.” said Edward Stanley, director of the Florida Museum of Natural History’s Digital Discovery and Dissemination Laboratory.
Modern amphibians are represented by three distinct lineages: frogs, salamanders, and limbless caecilians. A lineage indicates a sequence of species that is believed to have evolved from the one that preceded it, think of it as a family tree of amphibians.
Researchers say that up until two million years ago there was a fourth – albanerpetontids – whose ancestry dates back to at least 165 million years ago.
However, study co-author Susan Evans, a professor of vertebrate morphology and paleontology at University College London, believes their ancestry could be much older, possibly originating more than 250 million years ago! Now, it’s OLD!
He said: “If the first albanerpetontids also had ballistic tongues, the feature has been around longer than the first chameleons, which probably date back 120 million years.”
Adolf Peretti / Daza et al / Science / PA Wire Abanerpetontid fossils trapped in amber. This meant that the specimen was in “excellent condition”, which gave researchers the opportunity to study it in detail
Researchers say the fossil represents a new species of albanerpetontidae, called Yaksha perettii, which is about 5cm long without a tail.
Another fossil also had features that resembled albanerpetontids such as claws, scales, huge eye sockets and a projectile tongue.
Professor Evans said the discovery that albanerpetontids had bullet tongues helps explain some of their “weird and wonderful” features, such as unusual jaw and neck joints and large forward-facing eyes, a common feature of predators.
They may also have breathed entirely through their skin, as some salamanders do, he added.
Despite the findings, how albanerpetontids fit into the amphibian family tree remains a mystery.
The professor. Evans said: “In theory, albanerpetontids could give us a clue as to what the ancestors of modern amphibians were like.
“Unfortunately, they are so specialized and so weird in their own way that they aren’t helping us that much.”
Source link
