Argentine scientists discovered Jurassic tadpole fossils in Patagonia, breaking the record for the oldest species.
When mentioning the Jurassic period, people often think of giant animals: Dinosaurs, pterosaurs, and frogs… However, a new discovery of a 161 million year old tadpole fossil has just been published in the magazine Nature shows that they are extremely large (16 cm in size, it is a very large larval form of a large frog).
The fossils were found, excavated from what is now known as Patagonia (a semi-arid scrub plateau covering almost the entire southern part of mainland Argentina). This is the first time researchers have fossil evidence of tadpoles from this period.
“The habitat of this tadpole is probably a shallow pond, which periodically dries up due to changing climatic conditions,” lead author Dr. Mariana Chuliver Pereyra from the National University of La Plata, shared with IFLScience. “Like most species today, not all tadpoles successfully metamorphosed, so many of them died when the pond dried up,” she added.
Scientists determined that the tadpole they found died naturally, then was covered by volcanic ash and mud, a type of fine-grained sediment. “The deposition of these fine layers of sediment has helped preserve the specimen perfectly for more than 160 million years,” said Dr. Mariana Chuliver Pereyra.
This tadpole is believed to be from the Jurassic frog Notobatrachus degiustoi, the most famous and extinct amphibian from this era. Like today’s Anura (frogs and toads), they had a two-stage life cycle, starting as aquatic larvae – which are tadpoles – and ending as adult frogs. This discovery not only breaks records but also helps understand more about the evolution of frogs and toads and their strange metamorphosis.
Despite being so old, the tadpole still retains its head, most of its body and part of its tail. Eyes, nerves and a forelimb showed that the tadpole was in the process of turning into a frog when it died. This is the basis to help scientists have enough data to research and determine the common characteristics of this tadpole with tadpoles of modern frog species.
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