245-million-year-old reptile fossil preserves the oldest known intact digestive system
A 245-million-year-old reptile fossil from China preserves a nearly complete skeleton and the oldest known largely intact reptile digestive system. Austronaga minuta had fin-like front limbs, a propulsion-driven tail, reduced hind limbs, and a simple stomach, showing its body adapted to ocean life faster than some internal organs. The fossil expands scientists’ view of how early archosaur relatives entered the seas after the end-Permian extinction and offers rare evidence of how their organs evolved. Life in the oceans did not always belong to creatures born there. In the wake of Earth’s greatest mass extinction, some animals began a slow and uncertain return to the water. A newly described fossil from China now offers one of the clearest views of that transition, capturing both the body and inner workings of a reptile that made the sea its home nearly 245 million years ago. The fossil, identified as Austronaga minuta, was studied by an international team including scientists from the State Museum of Natural History Stuttgart, the University of Hohenheim, and institutions in China, Europe, and the …
