Researchers Unravel the Secret of a 45 Million-Year-Old Death Trap



(UCC) paleontologists have discovered the reason that hundreds of ancient frogs died 45 million years ago while attempting to mate.

The underwater death trap in the Geiseltal region of central Germany claimed the lives of over 50,000 prehistoric species, including hundreds of frogs, horses, birds, and bats. Because of its unusual geological features and abundance of fossils, the former coalfield of Geiseltal in Saxony-Anhalt is considered as a scientific treasure trove because it provides a unique perspective on how the Earth's plants and animals developed over millions of years.

The Geiseltal region was a swampy subtropical forest over 50 million years ago, during the middle Eocene, when Earth was significantly warmer. Anurans, or frogs and toads, as well as giant crocodiles, enormous snakes, lizards, ground-dwelling birds, and ancestors of the horse lived there                                                               
Previous studies suggested that the Geiseltal frogs died when lakes dried up or the oxygen content of the water decreased. However, it was unclear until today just what killed these species.

The skeleton of the frog exhibits exceptionally great completeness and articulation (false colors). Thanks to D. Falk

The UCC team was able to focus their search by examining the fossil frogs' bones. There is no evidence that the fossil frogs were washed in during floods or perished because the swamp dried up, according to UCC researcher and study leader Daniel Falk. "As far as we can tell, the fossil frogs were healthy when they died, and the bones don't show any signs of predators or scavengers," he added. Additionally, the majority of the fossil frogs from the Geiselta region are species that live entirely on land and only venture into water to reproduce. The only plausible explanation, according to the method of elimination, is that they perished while mating.

In modern frogs, this phenomena is widespread. According to senior author Professor Maria McNamara, "Female frogs are at higher danger of drowning as they are frequently submerged by one or more males - this generally happens in species that engage in mating gatherings during the short explosive breeding season." What's truly intriguing is that fossil frogs from other sites exhibit these traits as well, indicating that modern frogs' mating habits are actually pretty old and have existed for at least 45 million years.

Reference: Daniel Falk, Oliver Wings, and Maria E. McNamara, "The skeleton taphonomy of anurans from the Eocene Geiseltal Konservat-Lagerstätte, Germany: insights into the controls on fossil anuran preservation," Papers in Palaeontology, 5 July 2022.

These findings are among the earliest fresh discoveries to be made since the "Zentralmagazin Naturwissenschaftlicher Sammlungen (ZNS)" in Halle (Saale), Germany, reopened its famous Geiseltal fossil collections to the public. With funding from the Irish Research Council, the project is a component of a research collaboration between UCC and Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg.

By UNIVERSITY COLLEGE CORK 

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