Level 1 — Absolute Beginner
Scientists find a very old fossil in China. The animal is a small sea reptile. It lived 245 million years ago.
The fossil is special. It still shows the animal's stomach, liver and intestines. Soft parts like these almost never last so long.
The reptile is about 60 centimetres long. It has a long neck and a longer tail. Its name is Austronaga minuta.
The scientists also see fish scales inside the body. This is the animal's last meal. The new study is in a journal called Science Advances.
- fossil
- The remains of an animal or plant from long ago, turned to stone.
- reptile
- An animal such as a snake or a lizard.
- stomach
- The part of the body where food goes first.
- liver
- An organ in the body that cleans the blood.
- intestines
- The long tube where food is broken down after the stomach.
- neck
- The part of the body between the head and the shoulders.
- scale
- A small hard plate on the skin of a fish or reptile.
- meal
- Food that you eat at one time.
Level 2 — Elementary
A team of scientists has described a fossil from China that keeps something almost never seen: the soft insides of an animal that died 245 million years ago. The fossil belongs to a small marine reptile named Austronaga minuta.
The animal was about 60 centimetres long, with a long neck and an even longer tail. Using modern tools, the researchers found its stomach at the front of the body. Behind it sits a strikingly red liver, where traces of hemoglobin, the substance that carries oxygen in blood, can still be detected.
After the liver comes a long, simple tube that forms the small and large intestines. This is the oldest known example of a mostly complete digestive system in a reptile. Inside the gut area, scientists also found fish scales, the remains of the animal's last meal.
Paleontologist Stephan Spiekman, of the State Museum of Natural History Stuttgart in Germany, helped lead the study. The results were published in the journal Science Advances.
- marine
- Living in or connected to the sea.
- soft
- Not hard. Not made of bone.
- detect
- To find or notice something.
- hemoglobin
- The red substance in blood that carries oxygen.
- digestive system
- The organs that break down food.
- remains
- What is left of something after most of it is gone.
- paleontologist
- A scientist who studies ancient life through fossils.
- journal
- A serious magazine that publishes scientific studies.
Level 3 — Intermediate
Researchers from China, Europe and the United States have described an exceptional fossil that preserves something paleontologists almost never see: the internal organs of an animal that died about 245 million years ago. The specimen belongs to a small, long necked marine reptile called Austronaga minuta.
The animal measured roughly 60 centimetres, with a long neck and an even longer tail. Applying modern analytical techniques, the team identified a large, sac like stomach at the front of the body, followed by a strikingly red liver in which traces of hemoglobin can still be detected. Behind it lies a long, simple tube that formed the small and large intestines.
The find is the oldest known example of a largely complete digestive system preserved in a reptile. Fish scales lie where the gut once was, offering a rare glimpse of the creature's final meal, and hinting at how it fed in the seas of the Triassic period.
Dr. Stephan Spiekman, a paleontologist at the State Museum of Natural History Stuttgart and the University of Hohenheim, was among the authors. The work appears in Science Advances, and it suggests that carefully examined fossils from the same rock layers might still be hiding more soft tissue.
- exceptional
- Unusually good or rare.
- specimen
- An example of an animal or plant used for study.
- analytical
- Using careful analysis to understand something.
- sac like
- Shaped like a bag.
- glimpse
- A brief look at something.
- hint
- To suggest something without saying it directly.
- Triassic
- A period of Earth's history from about 252 to 201 million years ago.
- tissue
- The material that the parts of an animal or plant are made of.
Level 4 — Advanced
An international team has described a fossil so well preserved that it retains the internal organs of a marine reptile that died about 245 million years ago. The specimen, a small, long necked animal named Austronaga minuta, was recovered in China and analysed by scientists from China, Europe and the United States.
Roughly 60 centimetres long, with a neck and, remarkably, a still longer tail, the animal offered up its anatomy to modern analytical techniques. The researchers identified a large, sac like stomach at the front of the body, followed by a strikingly red liver in which molecular traces of hemoglobin persist. Behind it runs a long, simple tube that resolves into the small and large intestines.
The discovery is the oldest known example of a largely complete digestive system preserved in a reptile. Fish scales sit where the gut once lay, a fossilised last meal that gives a rare, direct look at the feeding habits of a Triassic predator, information that bones alone can only suggest.
Dr. Stephan Spiekman of the State Museum of Natural History Stuttgart and the University of Hohenheim is among the authors of the study, published in Science Advances. The results are a reminder that soft tissue, long assumed to rot away without trace, can survive under exceptional conditions and, once found, rewrite what scientists believe they know about ancient anatomy.
- retain
- To keep or hold on to something.
- anatomy
- The structure of the body of an animal or plant.
- molecular
- Relating to the smallest units of a substance.
- persist
- To continue to exist.
- resolve into
- To end up becoming or separating into.
- predator
- An animal that hunts and eats other animals.
- assume
- To believe something is true without proof.
- rewrite
- To change something that was thought settled.
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