Rare Fossilized Vomit From The Age Of Dinosaurs Unearthed In Denmark
A Discovery of Prehistoric Vomit Sheds Light on Ancient Food Chains
A stunning discovery in Denmark has revealed an unexpected link to the world of dinosaurs: fossilized vomit dating back 66 million years, when the Earth was teeming with life from the Cretaceous period.
The Museum of East Zealand said Monday that the unusual find was made by local amateur fossil hunter Peter Bennicke along the Cliffs of Stevns, a UNESCO World Heritage site located south of Copenhagen.
One day, while walking along the cliffs, Bennicke saw some weird pieces of something embedded in a chalk rock formation. He observed them more closely and found out that the weird pieces were actually part of the fossil of an ancient marine organism known as sea lilies. Bennicke brought the specimen back to the museum and, to the amazement of the scientists, the fossilized material was fish vomit produced by the fish when it regurgitated what it could not digest from the sea lilies.
Dating to the very end of the Cretaceous era, the vomit is an important piece of the prehistoric ecosystem. As far as paleontologists are concerned, the vomit contains at least two species of sea lilies, which probably ended up in a fish's stomach. The problem is that sea lilies are not digestible, primarily because they consist of hard calcareous plates and only a few soft parts. The fish probably regurgitated them.
"This type of find is considered very important when reconstructing past ecosystems because it provides important information about which animals were eaten by which," said the museum.
Paleontologist Jesper Milan is also thrilled about the discovery and it is "truly an unusual find," the Guardian reported. He said that although sea lilies are not ideal food due to their low value in nutritional content, this fossilized vomit explains how living things at the time interacted with their environment.
This discovery fills up some of the gaps in the understanding of marine life from the ancient past and the behaviors of fish from the late Cretaceous period.
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