Skull scan of adult albaner petontids.
Comparison of the skeletal structures of three animals with "slingshot tongues".
A new study recently published in the journal Science says that the fossils of albaner petontids( clad in "armor" show us the oldest "slingshot tongue".
Although it has claws , scales , and tails similar to that of lizards , the Alban salamander is actually an amphibian. They belong to a different lineage of amphibians than frogs, salamanders and salamanders, and live at least 165 million years ago and became extinct about 2 million years ago.
In the new study, scientists redefined the small animal through a set of 99 million-year-old fossils — a group of "rabbit-waiting" people who used a slingshot tongue to prey on prey, rather than the "diggers" previously thought. In addition, they represent a new species in another genus: Yaksha perettii.
"This discovery illustrates the cool side of these small animals," said study co-author Edward Stanley, who is also director of the Digital Discovery and Dissemination Laboratory at the Florida Museum of Natural History, "and their 'slingshot tongue' gives us a whole new understanding of the lineage." ”
The new discovery began with a misjudgment. In 2016, Stanley and the leader of the study, Juan Diego Daza, an assistant professor of biological sciences at Sam Houston State University, co-published a paper showing a group of amber fossils that they identified as rare lizards. One of the juvenile specimens is confusingly mixed (containing a special hyoid bone). Based on the results of crystal radiation dating at the site of the fossil's discovery, the scientists ultimately determined it to be an ancient chameleon that lived 99 million years ago.
However, when Susan Evans, a professor of vertebrate morphology and paleontology at University College London and an expert at Albi University, read the study, he immediately recognized the specimen – it was not a chameleon at all.
Evans then emailed Daza to make his opinion, and with the help of gemologist Peretti, Daza immediately rearranged and analyzed the fossils.
One of the fossils caught Daza's special attention, and he found that the fossil was the complete skull of the adult Alban salamander. "It looks completely 'new.'" Stanley said, "All parts are intact, even parts of the soft tissue including the jaw muscles and eyelids. ”
The alban salamander's sturdy, speckled skulls have led scientists to identify them as "diggers," and no one could have imagined that they would have the same lifestyle as chameleons. The chameleon's tongue is one of the fastest muscles in the animal kingdom, and the tongues of some chameleons can accelerate from 0 mph to 60 mph in a hundredth of a second. This speed stems from its special accelerating muscles, which can store energy through contraction, creating momentum when it pops out.
If the Alban salamander also has a "slingshot tongue", it means that this feature has a much longer history than chameleons (which appeared 120 million years ago).
Fossil evidence suggests that the Salamanders are at least 165 million years old, though Evans believes their lineage may be much older — originating 250 million years ago.
In addition, the "Slingshot Tongue" helped scientists explain Y. Some of the other strange and wonderful features of perettii, such as the unusual jaw and neck joints and the large fore-looking eyes, are common features of predators. They may also breathe through the skin like salamanders.
However, Yaksha perettii is small. According to skull speculation, the adult Yaksha perettii is about 2 inches long (excluding tail length) and the juvenile is a quarter the size of the adult.
Despite the high preservation and integrity of this paleontological specimen, its exact location in amphibian genealogies remains a mystery.
The researchers encoded the physical features of these specimens and tested them in 4 amphibian relationship models, still without definitive results. Perhaps the culprit of this difficulty is precisely its unusual combination of features.
Editor: Tangerine Reviewer: Seamus Editor:Chen Zhihan
Journal Source: Science
Issue no. 1095-9203
Original link: https://phys.org/news/2020-11-earliest-rapid-fire-tongue-weird-extinct.html
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