Scientists have ground a remarkably keep salamander dating back 40 to 35 million years that still contain the last meal it eat .
Published inPeerJ , the discovery was result by a squad of paleontologists from France and Switzerland . The specimen isPhosphotriton sigei , and is the only one of its form . It was first discovered in the 1870s , but had never been studied in detail until now .
Using the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility ( ESRF ) in Grenoble , France , the squad were capable to peer inside the specimen , revealing startling details . This stove poker belongs to the same category as the fervidness salamander , which is still alert today .
Inside the specimen , the squad set up the remains of frog bones in its stomach . stove poker almost never rust frogs , so it ’s unreadable if this was a last stamping ground meal or perhaps a dietary choice for this species .
“ This fogy , along with a few others from the same lost situation , is the most incredibly well - preserved that I have see in my entire life history , ” say Michel Laurin , from the Museum of Natural History in Paris , in astatement . “ And now , 140 years after its discovery , and 35 million years after the creature died , we can finally analyse it , thanks to forward-looking engineering . The mummy return ! ”
The study was able to reveal that the animal ’s soft organs are still conserved under its skin and bones , including its lung , face , and gut . fogy hold balmy tissue like this are extremely rarefied , but they provide an incredible insight into what these creature ate and how they lived .
Only the trunk , rosehip , and part of the hind leg were continue in this dodo . Using synchrotron technology , which render a knock-down source of X - rays , the squad were capable to peer inside the fossil without having to actually trim down it open . This revealed six kinds of organs , and also skin and a dower of the frame .
“ These are among the oldest known cases of three - dimensional preservation of these organ in vertebrates and shed sparkle on the bionomics of this salamander , ” the squad wrote in their newspaper .
