Ancient amphibians preserved in amber Extant amphibians are represented by three fairly simple morphologies: the mostly hopping frogs and toads, the low-crawling salamanders, and the limbless caecilians. Until the early Pleistocene—and for more than 165 million years—there was another group, the albanerpetontids. We know little about this group because amphibian fossils are poorly preserved, and previous specimens from this group are both rare and mostly badly damaged. Daza et al. describe a set of fossils preserved in amber showing that this group was unusual both in their habitat use (they may been climbers) and their feeding mode, which appears to have been convergent with the ballistic feeding now seen in chameleons (see the Perspective by Wake). Science, this issue p. 687; see also p. 654 A set of fossils preserved in amber indicates that Cretaceous amphibians shared convergent characteristics with chameleons. Albanerpetontids are tiny, enigmatic fossil amphibians with a distinctive suite of characteristics, including scales and specialized jaw and neck joints. Here we describe a new genus and species of albanerpetontid, represented by fully articulated and three-dimensional specimens preserved in amber. These specimens preserve skeletal and soft tissues, including an elongated median hyoid element, the tip of which remains embedded in a distal tongue pad. This arrangement is very similar to the long, rapidly projecting tongue of chameleons. Our results thus suggest that albanerpetontids were sit-and-wait ballistic tongue feeders, extending the record of this specialized feeding mode by around 100 million years.

中文翻译：

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白垩纪中期琥珀中神秘的两栖动物是变色龙般的弹道饲养者

保存在琥珀中的古代两栖动物 现存的两栖动物以三种相当简单的形态为代表：主要是跳跃的青蛙和蟾蜍、低爬的蝾螈和无肢的蝾螈。直到更新世早期——超过 1.65 亿年——还有另一个群体，albanerpetontids。我们对这个群体知之甚少，因为两栖动物化石保存得很差，而且这个群体以前的标本既罕见又大多严重受损。达萨等人。描述一组保存在琥珀中的化石，表明该群体在栖息地使用（他们可能是登山者）和进食方式方面都不同寻常，这似乎与现在在变色龙中看到的弹道进食方式一致（参见 Wake 的观点）。科学，这个问题 p。687; 另见第 654 一组保存在琥珀中的化石表明，白垩纪两栖动物与变色龙具有共同的特征。Albanerpetontids 是微小的、神秘的两栖动物化石，具有一套独特的特征，包括鳞片和特殊的下颌和颈部关节。在这里，我们描述了 albanerpetontid 的一个新属和种，以保存在琥珀中的完全铰接的 3D 标本为代表。这些标本保留了骨骼和软组织，包括细长的正中舌骨元件，其尖端仍嵌入远端舌垫中。这种排列与变色龙长而快速伸出的舌头非常相似。因此，我们的结果表明 albanerpetontids 是坐等弹道舌食者，将这种专门喂养模式的记录延长了大约 1 亿年。