It was discovered in a cave in Oklahoma, but even though it’s only a tiny flake of stone it could hold massive paleontological significance. That’s because this is the oldest sample of skin from the amniote family ever discovered.
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00This is a tiny fossil discovered in a cave in Oklahoma, but even though it's
00:07only a tiny flake of stone, it could hold massive paleontological significance.
00:12That's because this is the oldest sample of skin from the amniote family ever
00:16discovered. Amniotes are a classification of animalia that includes most living
00:20vertebrates, including mammals, birds, and reptiles. But this sample comes from one
00:25that lived some 290 million years ago, meaning it predates the dinosaurs. Skin
00:31doesn't calcify as well as bone, meaning finds like these are rare indeed. This
00:35one, however, was able to be preserved as the caves in which was found harbor the
00:39perfect conditions to delay decomposition. And this tissue is so well preserved, it
00:43was so in three dimensions, meaning it's very likely that the internal structures
00:47are still intact. With paleontologist Ethan Mooney saying about the find, quote,
00:52finding such an old skin fossil is an exceptional opportunity to peer into the
00:56past and see what the skin of some of these earliest animals may have looked
01:00like. Experts say this sample is 21 million years older than the previous
01:04record holder.