In the perilous jungle, you need to find a place to rest when you are injured. By coincidence, you find a bear cave not far away. The bear is hibernating. Would you dare to go in and sleep together? 250 million years ago, a similar thing happened to different species. The injured chose to enter the cave. As a result, a disaster broke out and sealed it with his roommate.
Sealed roommate
In 1975, paleontologists discovered an ancient animal cave fossil in Natal Province, South Africa. The fossils contained two very complete remains, which were determined to come from 2.5 Billions of years ago.
One of them is the tridental palm dragon , also known as the tridentate, a mammal-like reptile. It is very likely to be the ancestor of mammals , Richard Dawkins's book "Ancestor's Story" has it. Another roommate puzzled the scientist for 40 years. Even if the identity was finally revealed, the scientist was still worried. It is a Przewalski's top newt, an early amphibian reptile .
The fillings in the cave are made up of different sedimentary layers. The bones of the two animals are still so complete, indicating that the high-speed water flow rushed in with the sediments and directly wrapped them in in. For hundreds of millions of years, fine silt continued to be superimposed on the original sedimentary layer to fill the caves, and gradually hardened into rocks, until humans discovered them.
in the cave,The three-pointed prongs are in a curled up position, clinging to the cave wall, and the top axolotl is "snuggling" by its side. It should be the impact of the water that it fits them together and pushes them to the side of the cave. The Tridentate is a burrowing animal and likes to dig its own burrows. The Bryder axolotl is obviously a visitor. However, the Tridentate is a carnivorous primitive mammal. For it, the Axolotl is dinner. This is completely What do two animals that cannot be "roommates" do in the same cave?
Scientist’s guess
The earliest guess was The flood happened to rush the top newt into the hole _strong quickly denied. From the fossil point of view, the top axolotl went first. The tunnel that the Tridentate dug into the hole is close to the size of its own head, and the top newt's head is similar to that of the Tridentate. It's definitely okay to climb in on the initiative, but it's almost impossible if it's water impact. This is equivalent to fixing a needle in a basin with water, and then putting a short section of thread, and then turning the water flow to thread the needle.
Is the top axolotl the prey caught by the tri-pointed prongs, take it home and eat it when you are hungry? The scientists found through scans that the ribs of the top newt did have injuries, but the two bite marks above the left eye had a tooth pitch that did not match the canine teeth of the tripoint. Even if you "sit" to death, you have to use your canine teeth to dangle it back into the hole. Moreover, in South Africa, the weather is hot, and the food will rot quickly, which is not conducive to storage. In addition, the skeleton of the top newt is very complete, and there is no trace of being eaten, so the three-pointed prongdon has no intention to eat the top newt.
From the above analysis, the top newt is most likely to enter by himself. Is it possible that the trident is dead,So the top newt dove occupies the magpie's nest. But the tricuspid prongdon bends its spine against the cave wall, indicating that when the flood hits, its body is flexible, if it has died long ago, its body should be rigid, sediment and water. The impact cannot fix it into a curve that fits perfectly with the wall. Unless it happens to have just died on the front foot, the flood will come on the back foot, but this does not explain how the top axolotl predicts it. The cave owner who is still radiating heat has died, and then inserted in the middle of the gap.
In the last case, the trident may not die, but just sleeps long, and the top newt desperately needs a shelter. For this explanation, scientists themselves are helpless, but it is indeed the best explanation. From the fossil point of view, the limbs of the three-pointed prongs are a natural resting posture. Among the large number of cave fossils in South Africa, the three-pointed prongs are also curled up.
After linking up, scientists made a major discovery. The reason why the tridentate burrows is that they have to do summer sleep, because the dry, hot, deep sleep in the early Triassic in South Africa can reduce Slow metabolism, so as to survive the hot period, which may be the reason why their ancestors survived the extinction event at the end of the Permian.
There is also a motive for the top newt to enter the hole. The scan showed that several of the injured ribs were almost healed, indicating that they had been crushed long before entering the cave. It was painful for him to move and breathe, and he urgently needed to rest.
What happened at that time
One day was very hot, and the tridentate was sleeping in the cave. The top axolotl, enduring the severe pain, can only move slowly. It must find a short dwelling before being discovered by its natural enemies.
Suddenly, a cave appeared in front of his eyes. Based on his experience, this is the nest of the tripoint prongs. Ding Xuan thought: It is sleeping in the summer, as long as the movement is light, it can't wake up, and it will leave as soon as the injury is better. Unexpectedly, after staying for two days, water poured in, and sediments covered their bodies until they became fossils.
These pictures of a pair of roommates in the early Triassic period retain the moment of meeting each other. Two completely different species are using their own ways to live for a few more days in the long river of history. As a result, they met and became eternal.
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