A Fossil Hunter Found 66 Million-Year-Old Fossilized Vomit (Was Probably Hoping For A T-Rex)
I would feel comfortable betting that at some point in most people's childhood, there's a time when they are convinced that they want to be a paleontologist.
I'm fairly certain that this is the work of Jurassic Park. We all see Sam Neil wearing a cool hat and hanging out with Laura Dern, and we all thought, "I think I would like to do that."
However, sometimes we forget that it's not all digging up Tyrannosaurus rex-es-es and Laura Dern, sometimes it's considerably less glamorous, and some scientists in Denmark got a reminder of this with their latest big fossil discovery: 66 million-year-old vomit.
According to NPR, the petrified puke was found at Stevns Klint, a cliff known for being home to some fossils. The fossil — which was found in a piece of chalk — was discovered by Peter Bennicke and sent to Denmark's East Zealand Museum.
Researchers believe that the vomit was the work of a fish and that the find could shed new light on the food chain common to the area's seas during the Cretaceous period.
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Fossils like this are called "regurgitalites," which is fancy speak for "puke fossil."
"Regurgitalites give us a window into the feeding processes of various members of the ecosystem that were around at the time," Columbia University professor Paul Olsen said.
Cool… but it's no pterodactyl.
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I mean, I imagine there is some kind of paleontological shindigs where everyone gets together to talk about fossils and get hammered, and imagine getting into a discussion where colleagues are trying to one-up each other and having to bring up fish puke.
"Yeah, I just got back from an expedition to the Arctic. We found some really exquisite mastodon specimens up there in stunning condition. Really, you must come see it next time you visit the museum."
"Well, I just flew in from uncovering the largest complete triceratops fossil ever found in the Western Hemisphere."
"Cool, cool… I'm not sure if you guys heard about the 66 million-year-old fish vomit, but that was all me… pretty neat… "
Still, it's a fascinating find and is still way more ancient fish barf than I've ever found.