Fossil tadpoles discovered in Argentina date back at least 161 million years, making them the oldest ever discovered.
The fossil was discovered in January 2020, and news of the discovery was published in Nature on October 30, 2024.
The team wasn't necessarily looking for what they found, they stumbled upon the monumental discovery by chance.
The fossil, discovered in Argentina, is the oldest of its kind ever discovered. This fossil had similarities to today's tadpoles. (St. Petersburg)
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According to National Geographic, the team was actually looking for dinosaur fossils.
What they ended up finding was the oldest tadpole fossil ever found on sandstone, according to the Associated Press.
Sources said the fossils included part of the tadpole's skull and spine, as well as impressions of its eyes and nerves.
Frogs go through stages of growth known as metamorphosis. (St. Petersburg)
“This is not only the oldest tadpole known, but also the most beautifully preserved,” said study author Mariana Chubar, a biologist at Maimonides University in Buenos Aires, according to the Associated Press. .
“It's starting to help narrow down the window of time it takes for a frog to become a frog,” said Ben Kligman, a paleontologist at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History who was not involved in the study.
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The tadpoles discovered belong to the Jurassic species Notabatrachus degiustoi. Published research provides a better understanding of the evolution of frog life cycles.
This fossil had characteristics similar to modern tadpoles. The similarities include “features of the filter-feeding mechanism” still present in tadpoles, the study said.
The “characteristics of the filter-feeding mechanism'' demonstrated by this fossil were striking as similarities between ancient and modern tadpoles. (St. Petersburg)
The very large tadpole fossil was measured to be about 6 inches long.
Modern frogs vary greatly in size. The largest surviving frog species is the Goliath frog.
According to the San Diego Zoo website, tadpoles belonging to these species are about the same as other frog species in terms of size, but can grow to a whopping 12.5 inches. According to sources, these giant frogs can weigh up to 7.2 pounds.
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There was no question what the recently studied tadpole fossil was when it was discovered, but further research has begun to reveal more about this record-breaking discovery.
“When I first saw the fossil, I thought, 'Okay, this is definitely a tadpole,'” Chubar said, according to NPR. “But when I looked at it under a binocular microscope, I said, 'Okay, this is the best tadpole ever!' Because until now, no other tadpole fossil has preserved its gill skeleton. That’s why.”
