The killing in the fossil 100 million years ago

frogs and food fossils in the bellyOn May 23rd Chinese and British palaeontologists announced that very rare fossils of frog stomachs had been found in the Cretaceous formations of eastern Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, opening scientists' first detailed understanding of the amazing predatory relationship between prehistoric amphibians. The study was carried out by Associate Professor Yu Lida of the University of Geology (Beijing), Executive Director of the British World Stone Natural History Museum, and Professor Susan E. Smith of University College London. E. Evans co-research. The research paper was published in Scientific Reports.
The Molidawadaur Autonomous Flag in Hulunbel District of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region is an important fossil site newly discovered in recent years, and is rich in hot river biome fossils in the Guanghua group formations of the early Cretaceous Longjiang Basin, 120 million years ago, mainly in fish, turtles, amphibians and other vertebrates, as well as rich invertebrate fossils, such as insects, leaf limbs and so on. Due to the special geological conditions, the fossil category is numerous and the survival conditions are intact, and it is another important fossil origin known to be the hot river biome in western Liaoning.
A fossil found in the Longjiang Basin is like a lifelike prehistoric snapshot that reveals the shape and behavior of life hundreds of millions of years ago, and the discovery is the first to show the importance of research and ornamental value in preying among Cretaceous amphibians. Liu Liang, director of the Yingliang World Stone Natural History Museum in Fujian, told reporters.
This rare specimen was obtained by accident, Nguyen told reporters: "In the course of a search for the collection, I accidentally saw this specimen from the collectors of origin, it made me suddenly think of a scene in the animal documentary I saw as a child." In the documentary, the bullfrog swallows a highly toxic dragonfly and is eventually poisoned to death. And the fossil in front of me is so similar to what happened in the documentary, does that mean that their ancestors developed this tendency 100 million years ago?
after, scholars such as Zhai Lida began to study the Gini frog's stomach contents in detail, and the bones of the frog's stomach were clearly visible, preserving the skull, spine and part of the forebrae, and the hind limbs. The bones of this dinner extend from the frog's left shoulder strap to the frog's left front spine area and from the abdominal side through the frog's belt area to the tailbone bone. The dragonfly's tail rolled up along the right side of the frog's abdomen, but it was not saved at the far end.
I studied many specimens of stomach contents, but this is a very impressive one, " Lida told reporters. Frogs are very typical opportunistic predators who eat everything they think they can eat. At the end of the long bone, which has never healed, and lacking a bone-like joint surface, this Ghani frog is not yet fully adult. The living land slugs are eaten by a variety of predators, including snakes, birds, small mammals, turtles, frogs, and other slugs, whose defenses include color or toxic skin secretions, but it is not known whether these features appear on Cretaceous slugs. "
bones in the specimen of the British frog are basically intact, and the bones are articulated to each other. This suggests that it was swallowed by the frog, and that its tail is likely to remain outside the frog's mouth, depending on the position of the skeleton, meaning that the frog is buried the moment it swallows the dragonfly. Moreover, predators and captured predators are very close in size and are likely to experience a struggle. Such fossils, which happen to have been preserved, are important for us to understand the food and behavior of ancient frogs and to reconstruct the food webs and energy flows in ancient ecosystems.
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