New geosciences study reveals Triassic fossils that expose origins of living amphibians. A team of Virginia Tech paleontologists, led by doctoral candidate Ben Kligman, have discovered the first Triassic-era caecilian fossils, the oldest-known of their kind, in Arizona. The find helps fill a massiv
Artistic reconstruction of Funcusvermis gilmorei and the crocodile relative Acaenasuchus geoffreyi in the tropical forest of Petrified Forest National Park about 220 million years ago. Artwork by Andrey Atuchin. Credit: Image courtesy of the National Park Service and the Petrified Forest Museum AssociationA team of Virginia Tech paleontologists, led by doctoral candidate Ben Kligman, have discovered the first-era caecilian fossils, the oldest-known of their kind, in Arizona.
“The discovery of the oldest caecilian fossils highlights the crucial nature of new fossil evidence. Many of the biggest outstanding questions in paleontology and evolution cannot be resolved without fossils like this,” said Kligman, who previously discovered aof cynodont or stem-mammal, a precursor of modern-day mammals. “Fossil caecilians are extraordinarily rare, and they are found accidentally when paleontologists are searching for the fossils of other more common animals.
“Seeing the first jaw under the microscope, with its distinctive double row of teeth, sent chills down my back,” Kligman said. “We immediately knew it was a caecilian, the oldest caecilian fossil ever found, and a once-in-a-lifetime discovery.” Modern caecilians are limbless amphibians with cylindrical bodies with a compact, bullet-shaped skull that helps them burrow underground. Now exclusively home to South and Central America, Africa, and southern Asia, caecilians spend their lives burrowing in leaf-litter or soil searching for prey such as worms and insects. This underground existence has made studying caecilians difficult for scientists.
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