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New research examining some old fossils has found a new species of amphibian. The animal belonged to the albanerpetontid family and provides the oldest known evidence of a sling-style tongue.
The fossils had previously been analyzed and misinterpreted as belonging to a species of ancient chameleons. However, the new study goes on to show that despite having lizard-like claws, scales, and tails, albanerpetontids (or “albies”) were actually amphibians. They belonged to a lineage distinct from modern frogs, salamanders, and caecilians. This lineage developed over about 165 million years and became extinct about 2 million years ago.
The fossils described in this study are around 99 million years old and help show how albinos hunted: waiting for potential prey, then flipping their tongues at them, similar to modern chameleons. This fossil specimen (previously misidentified as a primitive chameleon) is the first albie discovered in modern day Burma and the only known example in amber. The species was baptized Yaksha perettii, after the treasure guardian spirits known as yaksha in Hindu literature and Adolf Peretti, who discovered the fossil.
Don’t judge a fossil by its language
“This discovery adds a fantastic piece to the puzzle of this obscure group of strange little animals,” said study co-author Edward Stanley, director of the Florida Museum of Natural History’s Digital Discovery and Dissemination Laboratory. “Knowing they had this ballistic language gives us a whole new understanding of this entire lineage.”
The initial misidentification of the species can be traced back to the fossils from which it was described: a juvenile individual with a mixture of characteristics, including a specialized tongue bone. The article describing them sparked an international collaboration to better identify the fossils, after Susan Evans, professor of vertebrate morphology and paleontology at University College London and an expert on albie, recognized some of the characteristics. Together with Peretti, the researchers sent the sample along with similar amber-coated ones to the University of Texas at Austin for computed tomography (CT) scan.
The amber-coated specimen was found to be in “very good condition” (which tends to be rare for albies). Fortunately, she was also an adult counterpart to the young man who had previously been misidentified.
“Everything was where it was meant to be. There was also some soft tissue, ”Evans says.
The excellent quality of the specimen allowed the team to dispel some erroneous hypotheses about the species. Their reinforced skulls led researchers to speculate that they were some kind of excavation salamanders. Many other common features, most notably the claws, scales, and large eye sockets, also resembled reptiles. Probably the albie also had a ballistic tongue similar to those of today’s chameleons.
Based on the skull, the researchers estimate it Y. perettii it was about 2 inches long, not including the tail. The young man was a quarter of that size. He relied on his fast tongue (the chameleon’s tongue can go from 0 to 60 mph in a hundredth of a second, being one of the fastest muscles in the animal kingdom) to hunt bugs, and otherwise he would try to keep it hidden in the bushes, the team believes.
Its predatory nature and bullet tongue also help explain its other “weird and wonderful” features, including unusual jaw and neck joints and large forward-facing eye sockets. It is also likely that they breathed through the skin as salamanders do, but this is not yet confirmed.
Although the specimens were in excellent condition, the team remains unsure where they fit into the amphibian family tree due to its unusual combination of characteristics.
“In theory, the albies could give us a clue as to what the ancestors of modern amphibians were like,” Evan says. “Unfortunately, they’re so specialized and so weird in their own way they’re not helping us that much.”
No albie is known to have survived modern times, but they only faded about 2 million years ago, meaning they may have crossed paths with our previous hominid relatives.
“We only lost them a little. I keep hoping they are still alive somewhere, ”adds Evan.
The paper “The enigmatic amphibians in Cretaceous amber were ballistic feeders similar to chameleons” was published in the journal Science.
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