Fossilized Food Chain

One time I found an intact skeleton of a large python that had eaten an antelope, but died with the antelope still inside. Cool. But this is even cooler:

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A fossilized shark that swallowed a crocodile-like amphibian that, in turn, had gobbled up a fish has now been unearthed.

This exceptional find marks the first time scientists have found direct evidence of such a complex, extinct food chain.

Well, maybe. The story is reported here, but I was turned onto it by this must-see post at Science Buzz.

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A photograph and line drawing (left side) of the fossil dolphin Astadelphis gastaldii. The crescent-shaped line in the line drawing represents the bite of a large shark, with the red portions representing damage done directly to the bone. From Bianucci et al, 2010. Shark attacks are events of…
Reported last month in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, a fascinating fossil was discovered in the Saar-Nahe Basin of Southwestern Germany (sounds more like somewhere in Middle-earth than Bavaria to us, but go figure). The fossil(s?) comprises a fish that was eaten by an amphibian…
One of three newly-discovered specimens of the 383 million-year-old Tiktaalik roseae. These specimens fill a gap in the fossil record between aquatic and terrestrial animals. Image: Ted Daeschler. Making that transition from aquatic life to living on land was very important for vertebrates.…
Tiktaalik is practically a household name. Since its description in 2006 the flat-headed "fishapod" has appeared in books, on t-shirts, and has even starred in its own music video. Hailed as a "missing link", Tiktaalik has become a poster child fossil for evolution, but it is hardly the first such…

Nifty antenna. Must be a wireless shark.

By Virgil Samms (not verified) on 01 Dec 2007 #permalink

Oh, "must see?" Thanks for the kind words Greg. I do dig the idea that we are probably sitting on yet to be undiscovered mysteries in our museum collections.