Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by hubie on Wednesday September 21 2022, @05:51AM   Printer-friendly

Fossilized vomit tells the tale of an ancient meal:

Around 150 million years ago in what's now Utah, an animal chugged down a small frog and a salamander. It then lost its lunch. Fast forward to modern times, when a team of paleontologists identified and investigated the fossilized vomit, unraveling a mystery along the way.

The researchers published a study on the puke in the journal Palaios late last month. The scientists found frog bones, including some that likely came from a tadpole, and bits from a salamander. "Aspects of this new fossil, relating to the arrangement and concentration of the bones in the deposit, the mix of animals, and the chemistry of the bones and matrix, suggested that the pile of bones was regurgitated out by a predator," Utah State Parks said in a statement on Tuesday.

[...] The fossil site, famous for plant remains, was a pond long ago, home to amphibians and fish. The researchers worked out that a bowfin fish most did the vomiting. It's possible the ancient fish upchucked to distract a predator. Utah State Parks noted the paleontologists jokingly referred to the fossil find as the "fish-puked tadpole."

[...] The researchers hope to find other, similar fossils within Utah's Morrison Formation, a layer of history that also preserves many dinosaur remains. Puke might not seem like the most glamorous paleontology subject, but it's a fascinating (and slightly gross) window into life long ago.

What do you suppose will remain from our world millions of years into the future? [hubie]

Journal Reference:
John R. Foster, Adrian P. Hunt, and James I. Kirkland, SIGNIFICANCE OF A SMALL REGURGITALITE CONTAINING LISSAMPHIBIAN BONES, FROM THE MORRISON FORMATION (UPPER JURASSIC), WITHIN A DIVERSE PLANT LOCALITY DEPOSIT IN SOUTHEASTERN UTAH, USA Palaios, 2022. DOI: 10.2110/palo.2021.058


Original Submission

This discussion was created by hubie (1068) for logged-in users only, but now has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
(1)
  • (Score: 0, Spam) by Analtomography on Wednesday September 21 2022, @07:35AM (2 children)

    by Analtomography (18497) on Wednesday September 21 2022, @07:35AM (#1272702)

    Yes, this was covered in the Movie, "The Hangover", with the tiger in the bathroom.

    • (Score: 1, Spam) by Gromography on Wednesday September 21 2022, @07:50AM (1 child)

      by Gromography (18498) on Wednesday September 21 2022, @07:50AM (#1272705)

      Better than most days on SoylentNews, what with the Brietbarf submissions~

      • (Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 21 2022, @11:43AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 21 2022, @11:43AM (#1272729)

        Brietbarf covers all these science stories too?

  • (Score: 4, Funny) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Wednesday September 21 2022, @08:20AM

    by Rosco P. Coltrane (4757) on Wednesday September 21 2022, @08:20AM (#1272707)

    What do you suppose will remain from our world millions of years into the future?

    It's Utah, so they'll probably find seer stones and Egyptian artifacts.

  • (Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday September 21 2022, @11:11AM (1 child)

    by Phoenix666 (552) on Wednesday September 21 2022, @11:11AM (#1272724) Journal

    Anybody amazed by fossilized vomit never stayed at a frat house.

    --
    Washington DC delenda est.
    • (Score: 2) by Thexalon on Wednesday September 21 2022, @06:13PM

      by Thexalon (636) on Wednesday September 21 2022, @06:13PM (#1272831)

      Also, they're unfamiliar with the harrowing end of Spinal Tap drummer Eric "Stumpy Joe" Childs.

      --
      The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(1)