Enigmatic amphibians in mid-Cretaceous amber were chameleon-like ballistic feeders.

Autor: Daza JD; Department of Biological Sciences, Sam Houston State University, Huntsville, TX, USA. juand.daza@gmail.com., Stanley EL; Department of Herpetology, Florida Museum of Natural History, Gainesville, FL, USA., Bolet A; Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Cerdanyola del Vallès, Spain.; School of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK., Bauer AM; Department of Biology and Center for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Stewardship, Villanova University, Villanova, PA, USA., Arias JS; Unidad Ejecutora Lillo, CONICET - FML, San Miguel de Tucumán, Argentina., Čerňanský A; Department of Ecology, Laboratory of Evolutionary Biology, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Comenius University in Bratislava, Bratislava, Slovakia., Bevitt JJ; Australian Centre for Neutron Scattering, Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, Sydney, NSW, Australia., Wagner P; Department of Research and Conservation, Allwetterzoo Münster, Münster, Germany., Evans SE; Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, University College London, London, UK.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Science (New York, N.Y.) [Science] 2020 Nov 06; Vol. 370 (6517), pp. 687-691.
DOI: 10.1126/science.abb6005
Abstrakt: Albanerpetontids are tiny, enigmatic fossil amphibians with a distinctive suite of characteristics, including scales and specialized jaw and neck joints. Here we describe a new genus and species of albanerpetontid, represented by fully articulated and three-dimensional specimens preserved in amber. These specimens preserve skeletal and soft tissues, including an elongated median hyoid element, the tip of which remains embedded in a distal tongue pad. This arrangement is very similar to the long, rapidly projecting tongue of chameleons. Our results thus suggest that albanerpetontids were sit-and-wait ballistic tongue feeders, extending the record of this specialized feeding mode by around 100 million years.
(Copyright © 2020 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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