Oldest Fossilized Crocodile-Like Skin Discovered by Scientists

Researchers have discovered what is believed to be the oldest skin fossil on record.

The alligator-like skin, which is at least 286 million years old, was preserved in an ancient buried cave in what is now Oklahoma. The discovery could help unravel evolutionary mysteries and provide important clues to a time when some animals were transitioning to living on land.

“Finding old skin fossils like this is a great opportunity to peer into the past and learn what the skin looked like on these early animals,” said the University of Toronto graduate student and co-author of the book. says lead author Ethan Mooney. the paper said in a news release.

Discovery announced Thursday Published in the scientific magazine “Current Biology”, created in a quarry and cave system called Richard's Spur. Researchers believe the animals fell into the cave system and were preserved by seeping oil and tar that enveloped them.

Skin is a three-dimensional mold with fossilized tissue attached to it.

“There are very few examples of Paleozoic land animals that have preserved skin,” said Paul Olsen, a paleontologist and Columbia University professor who was not involved in the paper. “He's one of the reasons why this is so important.”

The preserved skin was discovered at a site full of fossils of lizard-like creatures called lizards. captorinus aguti, However, it was not clearly associated with any particular skeleton.

Olsen said the skin could help solve the mystery of how reptiles and mammals diverged from each other during evolutionary history. Her two branches of life have a common ancestor.

“They hypothesize that the common ancestor of reptiles and mammals had reptilian-like skin, but their reptilian-like skin is not associated with the skeleton, so they have We can't really show that with the materials we have,” Olsen said of the authors. “Maybe this site will reveal that in the future.”