Researchers say the fossil, which measures 16 centimeters (6.3 inches) long, sheds light on the evolution of frogs and toads, suggesting that tadpoles are the today largely unchanged from their Jurassic predecessors.
Quoted from ReutersThursday 31 October 2024, the specimen, which belongs to the species previously known as Notobatrachus degiustoi, is so well preserved that it has the remains of soft tissue not usually seen in fossils.
According to researchers, the eyes and nerves of tadpoles, for example, are preserved as dark traces of the anatomical position in fossils.
The fossil was discovered in 2020 when dinosaur remains were excavated on a farm in the Santa Cruz Department, about 2,300 kilometers south of Buenos Aires in the vast Patagonia region of southern Argentina.
The head of the tadpole and most of its body are preserved.
Frogs have a two-stage life cycle, with the aquatic tadpole larvae turning into adults. These tadpoles are in the final stages of metamorphosis.
The researchers say that the adult tadpoles of this species are the same length as tadpoles.
“Not only is this the oldest and most amazing tadpole preserved in the world, but it also tells us about the size of one of the few frog species that known since that time,” said the biologist Mariana Chuliver from Fundación Azara-Universidad Maimónides, lead author of the study published on Wednesday 30 October 2024 in the journal Nature.
“There are remains of soft tissue, such as nerves or eyes. However, the basic feature that is preserved is the hyobranchial skeleton, the cartilaginous framework that supports the tadpole’s behavior,” he said.
“This is very important because it allows us to understand the diet and lifestyle of these organisms,” continued Chuliver.
The fossils, he said, show that tadpole morphology has hardly changed over the past 160 million years.
2024-10-31 04:59:00
#Scientists #Find #Oldest #Tadpole #Fossil #Age #Dinosaurs
