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Scientists have discovered the earliest evidence of a “sling” language in 99-million-year-old amphibian fossils.
The armored prehistoric creatures, known as albanerpetontids, were predators sitting and waiting for them to grab their prey with a bullet of their “ballistic tongues”.
Although they had lizard-like claws, scales and tails, analysis indicates that the albanerpetontids were amphibians and not reptiles, the team said.
They believe the findings, published in the journal Science, redefine the way small animals ate. Albanerpetontids were previously considered to be underground burrowers.
Edward Stanley, study co-author and director of the Florida Museum of Natural History’s digital discovery and dissemination laboratory, said, “This discovery adds a super cool piece to the puzzle of this obscure group of weird little animals. Knowing that they had this ballistic language gives us a whole new understanding of this entire lineage. “
Modern amphibians are represented by three distinct lineages: frogs, salamanders, and limbless caecilians. The researchers claimed that up to 2 million years ago there was a fourth line, the albanerpetontids, whose lineage dates back to at least 165 million years.
However, Susan Evans, another co-author of the study and professor of vertebrate morphology and paleontology at University College London, said the lineage could be much older, probably originating more than 250 million years ago.
He said: “If the early albanerpetontids also had ballistic tongues, the feature has been around longer than the first chameleons, which probably date back 120 million years.”
Fossils of the tiny creatures have been discovered in Myanmar, trapped in amber, and a specimen found in “excellent condition” has offered researchers the opportunity for a detailed examination.
The researchers said the fossil represented a new species of albanerpetontidae, named Yaksha perettii, which was about 5 cm long without the tail.
Evans said: “We think of it as a stocky little thing running in the leaf litter, well hidden, but occasionally coming out for a fly, throwing out its tongue and grabbing it.”
Another fossil, a tiny young man previously misidentified as a chameleon due to its “puzzling features,” also had features that resembled those of an albanerpetontid – such as claws, scales, huge eye sockets and a projectile tongue.
Evans said the revelation that albanerpetontids had bullet tongues helped explain some of their “weird and wonderful” features, such as their unusual jaw and neck joints and large forward-facing eyes, a common trait of predators.
The animals could have breathed entirely through their skin, as some salamanders did, he added.
Despite the findings, the researchers said how albanerpetontids adapted to the amphibian family tree remained a mystery.
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 strange in their own way that they are not helping us that much. “
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