A 250 million year old fossil of a crocodile/hammerhead-like reptile that possesses a flamingo like beak, has been the object of intrigue for researchers in this new study. Despite the fact that it is poorly preserved, scientists are in the quest to investigate this bizarre "beak".
A team from The Field Museum in Chicago led by Rowe Family Curator of Evolutionary Biology, Olivier Rieppel, revealed in their findings that this odd beak like protrusion is apparently part of a jaw, that is shaped like a hammerhead, when the creature feeds on low lying plants on the ocean floor, similar to a vacuum cleaner.
Researchers say that this creature is the earliest marine reptile specimen ever found, dating back to 242 million years that originated from southern China. The Atopodentatus unicus, translates to Latin as "unique strangely toothed", where the team describes this to be a "a very, strange animal".
Rieppel says that this ancient animal is unique since it possesses a hammerhead, as this is the first time they have seen anything like this. The team along with an international group from Scotland and China have determined its unusual appearance, especially its bizarre shaped head.
Rieppel explains how the jaw fit together and its feeding mechanism, where the team used modeling clay similar to Play-Doh, and reconstructing it with toothpicks to represent its teeth. They then obtained an idea how the upper and lower jaw would look like when they are attached, where the findings are based from this jaw reconstruction.
The team successfully determined how the jaw of the Atopodentatus unicus is shaped like a hammerhead along with its teeth that surrounded its edges. From peg like teeth on the outside of the mouth, it transformed into smaller shaped ones that are similar to needles. This distinct jaw structure apparently helped the marine reptile to feed on seabed plants.
Rieppel adds that these peg like teeth are helping in scraping off plants and moss from rocks on the seafloor, as it opens its mouth to suck the plant material bits. Then the needle like teeth are used like a filter to catch the plants and letting the water out, similar to how baleen whales filter feed.
With this reconstructed jaw, the findings clearly show that this is a herbivore, which is also observed in modern marine animals that use a filter feeding system. This filter feeding system of the Atopodentatus is also the earliest evidence of its kind, dating back to eight million years and also, the earliest evidence of a herbivorous marine reptile.
This new study is published in the journal, Science Advances.