I dunno why she swallowed that fish,
Perhaps she’ll per-ish.
There was an old shark who swallowed an amphibian
Eschewing nibblin’, she swallowed that amphibian!
She swallowed the amphibian to catch the fish
I don’t know why she swallowed that fish.
Perhaps she’ll perish.

The National Geographic News reports on a three-tier food-chain fossil, found in the remains of a freshwater lake in the Saar-Nahe Basin of modern-day southwestern Germany. Paleontologists found a fossil acanthodian fish within a temnospondyl amphibian within a shark. The creatures are estimated to be 290 million years old. This places them in the Early Permian Period (Cisuralian Epoch), when Pangaea was still fused.

Scientists have been carefully examining the location, orientation, and condition of the fossils, and have determined that they are a three-tier food chain.

The article goes on to elaborate two mysteries: nobody knows why no modern-day sharks live in freshwater; nor why current-day sharks don’t eat amphibians, even when they’re readily available.

Categories: Science