A 66 million-year-old vomit fossil has been found in Denmark.
Discovered alongside the Stevns Klint coastal cliff, the fossil is regurgitated lumps of sea lily – a sort of marine invertebrate.
They had been eaten throughout the Cretaceous interval tens of thousands and thousands of years in the past.
Fossil hunter Peter Bennicke made the invention after splitting open a bit of chalk.
He introduced the fossil to a neighborhood museum the place it was cleaned up and examined by specialists.
It was there John Jagt concluded the stays had been sea lilies that had been eaten by an animal which then threw up the indigestible components.
Such discoveries are invaluable to scientists as a result of they provide a window into historical ecosystems and reveal what predators ate and the way meals chains functioned thousands and thousands of years in the past.
The discover was named Danekrae DK-1295 – Danekrae are uncommon pure treasures of Denmark.
A sea lily – a sort of marine invertebrate. File pic: iStock
Museum curator at Geomuseum Faxe and member of the Danish Wildlife Committee Jesper Milan instructed Sky Information it was troublesome to inform precisely which animal had thrown up the stays.
However he stated it was doubtless from one thing that specialised in consuming issues with exhausting shells, akin to a fish or a bottom-dwelling shark.
He added: “We now have discovered tooth from sharks that had been specialised in crushing hard-shelled prey in the identical space.
“They’re known as Heterodontus, it is a relative of the fashionable Port Jackson shark. That one is excessive on my checklist of suspects.”
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Mr Milan continued: “It’s actually an uncommon discover.
“Sea lilies will not be a very nutritious weight loss plan, as they primarily encompass calcareous plates held collectively by only a few mushy components.
“However right here is an animal, in all probability a sort of fish, that 66 million years in the past ate sea lilies that lived on the underside of the Cretaceous sea and regurgitated the skeletal components again up.
“Such a discover supplies necessary new information concerning the relationship between predators and prey and the meals chains within the Cretaceous sea.”
The vomit fossil will likely be displayed in a particular exhibition on the Geomuseum Faxe.
