A unique specimen of the distant ancestor of the frog, who lived in the heyday of giant dinosaurs, has been preserved in amber.
The order of tailless amphibians, which today include frogs and toads, has a long evolutionary history of over 200 million years. However, their fossils are extremely rare: already at that time, these animals lived mainly in fresh water bodies or in other wet conditions that did not contribute to the preservation of the remains.
Until now, the oldest evidence of frog life in humid forests dates back 66 million years ago, and the oldest specimens in amber are 40 million years ago. However, a recent article published in Scientific Reports sets a new record.
One of the samples (left) retains recognizable frog limbs, the other (right) - almost a whole skull / Lida Xing, Florida Natural History Museum.
It is worth remembering that the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction took place 66 million years ago, which destroyed the flightless dinosaurs and freed up a lot of ecological niches that rushed to fill the surviving organisms. It is believed that frogs (like mammals) were among these creatures that have benefited from the death of competitors, and quickly changed, mastering new available habitats.
The find, presented by David Blackburn and his colleagues from the United States and China, has preserved the first remains of the frog ancestor, which have come down to us from the middle of the Cretaceous period - 99 million years ago. The extinct species was named Electrorana limoae. It was found among the famous amber of Myanmar, which brought us other unique remains of that era, including tailed spiders and vampire ants.
Ed Stanley, Florida Natural History Museum.
The amphibian has survived remarkably, allowing scientists to conduct computed tomography and obtain a three-dimensional model of a long-extinct animal, although the bulk of its soft tissues have already decomposed over the years. Scientists believe that the Electrorana inhabited humid forests, although they are anatomically close to today's toad toads and midwife toads, which are in no way tropical.
Promotional video:
Sergey Vasiliev