evolution: first amphibian with slingshot tongue (Introduction)

by David Turell , Friday, November 06, 2020, 19:50 (1479 days ago) @ David Turell

99 million years ago:

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/ancient-amphibian-oldest-known-animal-slingshot-tongue

"A tiny amphibian that lived 99 million years ago had a secret weapon: A tongue that shot out of its mouth like a bullet to snatch its prey. It’s the earliest known example of this “ballistic tongue” style of predation, researchers say.

"The amphibian is a new species, represented by a few tiny bits of skeleton and soft tissue discovered in chunks of Myanmar amber. The centerpiece of these finds is a newly discovered complete skull, exquisitely preserved in 3-D, that includes a long thin bone connected to the creature’s neck, with some remnants of tongue attached to the end.

"The creature, which measured just 52 millimeters long from snout to pelvis (not including a tail), used this bone to shoot its tongue out of its mouth and catch prey. This “sit-and-wait” style of predation is similar to that of a modern chameleon, researchers report in the Nov. 6 Science.

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'These amphibians were widespread — scientists have dug up thousands of albanerpetontid fossils in locations from Spain to Canada to Japan. These fossils built a picture of a wacky, salamander-like creature with pointy claws, an unusual jaw structure and a four-legged body covered in scales. Based on their scaly heads and claws, scientists thought that the creatures were probably burrowers, like some modern salamanders. But that didn’t explain some of the features.

***

“'These specimens completely change our understanding about albanerpetonids,” DeMar says.

***

"The skull fossil clears up a lot of confusion about this amphibian group’s lifestyle, Gardner says, but in other ways, albanerpetontids remain as enigmatic as ever. That’s because they’re so unusual, with so many odd features, that it’s difficult to sort out where they belong on the evolutionary tree of life, and how they’re related to other amphibians, living and extinct.

"Still, this find just goes to show that “one or two fossils can really upset the apple cart,” says Gardner, who admits that he, like many paleontologists, previously thought that this group were burrowers. “It’s very exciting. And I’m quite happy to be wrong.'”

Comment: this requires complex new designs with a brain that can handle the calculus calculations to aim the tongue accurately toward a rapidly flying insect. Design required.