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 have 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 chunk of chalk.
He introduced the fossil to a neighborhood museum the place it was cleaned up and examined by consultants.
It was there John Jagt concluded the stays have 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 historic 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.
Museum curator at Geomuseum Faxe and member of the Danish Wildlife Committee Jesper Milan advised Sky Information it was tough to inform precisely which animal had thrown up the stays.
However he mentioned it was probably from one thing that specialised in consuming issues with exhausting shells, similar to a fish or a bottom-dwelling shark.
He added: “We now have discovered enamel from sharks that have been specialised in crushing hard-shelled prey in the identical space.
“They’re referred to as Heterodontus, it is a relative of the trendy Port Jackson shark. That one is excessive on my record of suspects.”
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Mr Milan continued: “It’s really an uncommon discover.
“Sea lilies will not be a very nutritious eating regimen, as they primarily include calcareous plates held collectively by only a few delicate 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 vital new data concerning the relationship between predators and prey and the meals chains within the Cretaceous sea.”
The vomit fossil shall be displayed in a particular exhibition on the Geomuseum Faxe.
