A hundred million years old lizard eating "hemp small" is also a senior foodie?

Source: China Daily

Jianchang County, Liaoning Province, recently discovered a special specimen--- rare crustacean stomach containing yabu dragon. This discovery enriched the target group of Yabu dragons and was important for understanding the predation habits of small and medium-sized reptiles in the Cretaceous Period.

Led by Associate Professor Xing Lida of China University of Geosciences (Beijing), Executive Director of Yingliang Stone Natural History Museum Niu Kecheng, Professor Susan M. A chinese and foreign research team composed of Scholars such as Susan E. Evans published the paper in The Cretaceous Study of The Elsevier Publishing Group.

Stomach contents are a very rare and important fossil record, which is direct evidence of the dietary habits of ancient organisms such as dietary composition and habits.

Yabeinosaurus is from the world-famous Rehe biota, dating back 100 million years, and is the first lizard to be named for this biota, widely distributed in the Lower Chalk Tongyi County Formation and jiufotang formations.

The specimen was found in the Lower Cretaceous Nine Buddhas Formation formation in the Lama Cave area of Jianchang County, Liaoning Province, China, and is currently in the newly opened Yingliang Stone Natural History Museum. Through body length and skeletal morphology analysis, the new specimen should be classified as a juvenile strong sagittarius with a nose and hip length of 22 cm.

Past Yabu dragon fossils have recorded stomach contents containing fish wreckage, while Yabu dragon fossils containing undigested crustaceans have been first discovered.

When the Yingliang Stone Natural History Museum collected this specimen, it was in a state of unpaid masking, and the stomach contents were gradually exposed under the exquisite cleaning skills of the technicians of the original laboratory of the fossil mine Jingqing Restoration under the museum, and the first thing that was exposed was the huge claw foot.

This large crustacean preserves a claw foot covered with fine particles on the back, a slender segment of the pectoral foot, mouthparts and broken antennae, all of which are consistent with the Palaeocambarus licenti. The ancient Mulberry is shaped like a common crayfish on the table and is closely related to it.

"This is by far the oldest record of animals eating 'hemp small'," Xing said.

Based on the length and proportion of the crawfish fragments found, the researchers estimated that the prey on the ancient cockroach was about 12 to 13 centimeters, which was a very rich meal for the Yabu dragon.

Interestingly, there was a lack of carapace fragments in the stomach cavity of the Yabe dragon, Xing Lida said, "This little lizard is most likely preying on the ancient cockroaches that are molting on the riverbank." "Combining all gastric contents records, although Yabu Dragon lacked obvious swimming morphological characteristics, researchers still believe that Yabu Dragon had a habit of predation on the banks of rivers.

The crayfish we often eat is scientifically called protocellfish, which originated on the north coast of the Gulf of Mexico in the United States and in Louisiana, so some people also call it "Louisiana crawfish". Later, it was introduced to China and achieved the popular "hemp small" because of its edible value. China's Rehe biota has found a large number of freshwater crawfish fossils, dating back to about 130 million to 120 million years ago, Researcher Shen Yanbin of the Nanjing Institute of Paleontology has studied this batch of specimens, speculating that crayfish originated from East Asia and then spread to Central Asia, Europe and North America.

This interesting scientific discovery not only let the world know the fact that there were already "hemp small" enthusiasts on the earth 100 million years ago, but also contributed to the study of small and medium-sized paleontology in the Cretaceous Period.

Xing Lida said that the study found that it is of great help to understand the diet composition and crawling habits of small and medium-sized reptiles in the Cretaceous Period. The discovery of crustacean stomach contents enriched the predation targets of Yabu Dragon and clarified the paleo-niche of Yabu Dragon.