Enigmatic amphibians in mid-Cretaceous amber were chameleon-like ballistic feeders

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dc.contributor.authorDaza, JDen_AU
dc.contributor.authorStanley, ELen_AU
dc.contributor.authorBolet, Aen_AU
dc.contributor.authorBauer, AMen_AU
dc.contributor.authorArias, JSen_AU
dc.contributor.authorČerňanský, Aen_AU
dc.contributor.authorBevitt, JJen_AU
dc.contributor.authorWagner, Pen_AU
dc.contributor.authorEvans, SEen_AU
dc.date.accessioned2024-10-03T06:34:00Zen_AU
dc.date.available2024-10-03T06:34:00Zen_AU
dc.date.issued2020-11-06en_AU
dc.date.statistics2024-10-03en_AU
dc.description.abstractExtant amphibians are represented by three fairly simple morphologies: the mostly hopping frogs and toads, the low-crawling salamanders, and the limbless caecilians. Until the early Pleistocene—and for more than 165 million years—there was another group, the albanerpetontids. We know little about this group because amphibian fossils are poorly preserved, and previous specimens from this group are both rare and mostly badly damaged. Daza et al. describe a set of fossils preserved in amber showing that this group was unusual both in their habitat use (they may been climbers) and their feeding mode, which appears to have been convergent with the ballistic feeding now seen in chameleons (see the Perspective by Wake).en_AU
dc.description.sponsorshipWe thank A. Peretti and the Peretti Museum Foundation for access to their amber collection; GRS staff for organizing the Amber Symposium in Bangkok; J. A. Maisano and M. Colbert (UTCT, University of Texas) for scans; A. Maksimenko for technical assistance at the Australian Synchrotron; D. Grimaldi (AMNH) for paratype photographs and specimen notes; S. Abramowicz (LACM) for reconstruction of Yaksha; J. Gardner and an anonymous reviewer for their comments on the manuscript; and A. Raselimanana (U. d’Antananarivo) for access to specimens. Funding: National Science Foundation Division of Environmental Biology (NSF DEB) grant 1657656, Sam Houston State University (J.D.D.); NSF DBI1701714 (E.L.S.); NF170464 (Royal Society, UK), IJC2018-037685-I, the project CGL 2017-82654-P (MICINN, Spain, and FEDER, EU), and the CERCA Programme/Generalitat de Catalunya (A.B.); and grant 1/0209/18 (Ministry of Education of Slovak Republic and Slovak Academy of Sciences) (A.Č.). Ethics statement: Specimens were acquired following the ethical guidelines for the use of Burmese amber set forth by the Society for Vertebrate Paleontology (see “Provenance and Ethical Statement” section of the supplementary materials for a detailed description of ethical fossil acquisition and accession). We hope that this study will serve as a model for other researchers working with these types of materials in this region. Author contributions: Project was initiated by S.E.E., J.D.D., and E.L.S. E.L.S. and J.J.B. processed HRCT data. J.S.A., J.D.D., and A.B. performed phylogenetic analyses, with coding input from S.E.E. A.B. performed morphospace analyses. The paper was drafted by S.E.E., with contributions from all authors. Competing interests: The authors declare that they have no competing interests. Data and materials availability: All data are available in the main paper or the supplementary materials. The holotype of Yaksha perettii (GRS-Ref-060829) and referred specimen are housed at the Peretti Museum Foundation, Switzerland. The paratype (JZC Bu154) belongs to the James Zigras Collection, housed at the American Museum of Natural History, New York, USA.en_AU
dc.format.mediumPrinten_AU
dc.identifier.citationDaza, J. D., Stanley, E. L., Bolet, A., Bauer, A. M., Arias, J. S., Čerňanský, A., Bevitt, J. J., Wagner, P., & Evans, S. E. (2020). Enigmatic amphibians in mid-Cretaceous amber were chameleon-like ballistic feeders. Science, 370(6517), 687-691. doi:10.1126/science.abb6005en_AU
dc.identifier.issn0036-8075en_AU
dc.identifier.issn1095-9203en_AU
dc.identifier.issue6517en_AU
dc.identifier.journaltitleScienceen_AU
dc.identifier.pagination687-691en_AU
dc.identifier.urihttp://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.abb6005en_AU
dc.identifier.urihttps://apo.ansto.gov.au/handle/10238/15705en_AU
dc.identifier.volume370en_AU
dc.languageEnglishen_AU
dc.language.isoenen_AU
dc.publisherAmerican Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)en_AU
dc.subjectAmphibiansen_AU
dc.subjectCretaceous perioden_AU
dc.subjectPleistocene Epochen_AU
dc.subjectFossilsen_AU
dc.subjectPreservationen_AU
dc.subjectHabitaten_AU
dc.subjectFeedingen_AU
dc.subjectSkeletonen_AU
dc.subjectAnimal tissuesen_AU
dc.titleEnigmatic amphibians in mid-Cretaceous amber were chameleon-like ballistic feedersen_AU
dc.typeJournal Articleen_AU
dcterms.dateAccepted2020-09-08en_AU
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