Giant Jurassic tadpole found in Patagonia. An international team of scientists has studied the “superbly preserved” fossil of a tadpole found in Patagonia, Argentina, and identified it as the larval stage of an extinct frog named Notobatrachus degiustoi. The tadpole is 16cm long, which is huge for a tadpole, and makes it a little larger than the adults of its species.
The superb preservation enabled scientists to see the details of its eyes, nerves and other body structures. According to PhysOrg, “The fossil is strikingly similar to the tadpoles of today—even containing remnants of a gill scaffold system that modern-day tadpoles use to sift food particles from water.”
The fossil is dated as 161 million years old, making it the oldest fossil tadpole so far found. Fossils of adult frogs have been dated as over 200 million years, so the new fossil is not the oldest frog. However, the scientists claim it shows that the two stage lifestyle must have evolved early in the evolution of frogs and “has remained stable for at least 161 million years.” An article in Science (AAAS) News is entitled “Oldest known tadpole sheds light on origin of two-stage lifestyle.
References: PhysOrg 30 October 2024; Science (AAAS) News 30 October 2024; Nature 30 October 2024, doi: 10.1038/s41586-024-08055-y.
Editorial Comment: The superb preservation of this fossil with identifiable internal organs could only happen if this tadpole was rapidly and deeply buried. This fossil is another reminder that slow gradual processes do not make fossils. Anyone who has handled tadpole will know they are soft and squashy, and they only have a cartilaginous skeleton until the latter stages of their part in the life cycle when they start to form bones needed to for their adult body.
The only light that has been shed on the origin of tadpoles from this fossil is that tadpoles appear in the fossil record as fully formed functional tadpoles and have not evolved since the time this fossil was buried. The so-called oldest adult frogs are also fully formed frogs with all the distinctive features of adult frogs. This fits with Genesis, where we are told God created separate kinds of animals, ready to reproduce according to their kinds. Therefore, frogs were created with all the genetic information needed to form tadpoles after they had mated and laid eggs in accordance with God’s instructions to be fruitful and multiply. (Genesis 1:22) The more frog and tadpole fossils we find, the more this is confirmed.
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Creation Research News 18 December 2024