66 million-year-old vomit discovered in Denmark
A piece of fossilized vomit dating back to the time of the dinosaurs has been discovered in Denmark.
Local fossil hunter Peter Bennicke found the fossil at Stevns Klint - a Unesco-listed coastal cliff in the east of the country.
The self-declared "fossil geek" said he came across some unusual-looking fragments which turned out to be pieces of sea lily - an underwater species related to starfish and sea urchins - in a piece of chalk.
Mr Bennicke took the fragments to be examined at the Museum of East Zealand, which confirmed the vomit could be dated to the end of the Cretaceous period 66 million years ago - a time when dinosaurs including Tyrannosaurus and Diplodocus existed.
Jesper Milan, palaeontologist and curator at the museum, told the BBC it was "truly an unusual find" as it helps explain relationships in the prehistoric food chain.
"It tells us something about who was eating who 66 million years ago," he said.
During the period fish and sharks would eat sea lilies, which are hard to digest meaning they would then "regurgitate all the chalk bits", he explained.
"This find is a unique glimpse into the everyday situation in the bottom of the Cretaceous sea - the sea during which the dinosaurs lived," he said.
The discovery is also significant for improving our understanding of past ecosystems.
Mr Milan said his museum had only sent the information to the local press but the discovery has sparked global interest. "This is the world's most famous piece of puke ever," he said.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
a day ago
- Yahoo
AstraZeneca signs $5 billion research deal with China's CSPC
(Reuters) -AstraZeneca has signed a research agreement worth more than $5 billion with Chinese drugmaker CSPC Pharmaceutical Group, the Anglo-Swedish drugmaker said on Friday. The deal marks the latest effort by AstraZeneca to revive its business in China, where it has faced several challenges including the arrest of its China president last year and potential fines related to imports. Under the agreement, the two companies will collaborate to discover and develop pre-clinical candidates for potential treatments targeting chronic diseases, with CSPC conducting AI-driven research in Shijiazhuang City. Cambridge, UK-based AstraZeneca will pay CSPC an upfront fee of $110 million. The Hong Kong-listed firm is also eligible to receive up to $1.62 billion in development milestones and $3.6 billion in sales-related milestones, AstraZeneca said. In March, AstraZeneca announced plans to invest $2.5 billion in a research and development hub in Beijing, as it works to rebuild trust in its second-largest market.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Yahoo
BioNTech takes over CureVac in $1.25 billion all-stock deal among COVID rivals
By Ludwig Burger (Reuters) -German biotech firm BioNTech has agreed to acquire domestic peer CureVac for about $1.25 billion worth of BioNTech shares, it said on Thursday, to boost its work on new mRNA-based cancer treatments. Under the deal, which pairs two former rivals in the race to develop COVID-19 vaccines, CureVac shareholders stand to receive a premium of 55% over the three-month average share price, and leave them with a stake of about 4%-6% in BioNTech, the suitor said. CureVac's Frankfurt-listed shares surged 27% to a five-month high, valuing the company at 1.04 billion euros ($1.2 billion), while BioNTech shares were down 2% by 1237 GMT. The deal further underscores BioNTech's long-term pursuit of new cancer treatments as it aims to show that its success as Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine partner, which left its balance sheet flush with billions of euros in cash, was not a fluke. "With the acquisition, BioNTech aims to strengthen the research, development, manufacturing, and commercialization of investigational mRNA-based cancer immunotherapy," it said. CureVac opted to focus on oncology about a year ago when it agreed to sell its remaining influenza and COVID-19 vaccine development to alliance partner GSK. It had previously cut jobs as it sought to move beyond its failure to develop an mRNA-based COVID vaccine during the pandemic. GERMAN BIOTECH CHAMPION The agreement is also set to end CureVac's years-long legal fight over alleged mRNA patent infringement by BioNTech and for a share of vaccine revenues, where CureVac has made little progress. CureVac shares were worth as much as 120 euros in December 2020 on hopes it would develop a COVID vaccine, more than double their initial public offer value in August of that year. They are now trading at 4.65 euros. BioNTech won a major shot in the arm for its cancer drug activities last week when Bristol Myers Squibb agreed to pay up to $11.1 billion to jointly develop a next-generation cancer immunotherapy that could take on rival Merck & Co's best-selling drug Keytruda. Each CureVac share will be exchanged for about $5.46 in BioNTech American depositary shares, or ADS, but subject to a so-called collar mechanism, BioNTech said. If the 10-day volume-weighted average price of BioNTech ADS shortly before the closing of the offer exceeds $126.55, the exchange ratio would be 0.04318, and if the price is lower than $84.37, the exchange ratio would be 0.06476. BioNTech said the deal was supported by SAP SE co-founder and football investor Dietmar Hopp, who holds a stake of about 37% in CureVac. The German government, owner of about 13% in CureVac for its financial backing during the pandemic, said it welcomed in principle the creation of a "new German biotech champion", and that it would review the offer. ($1 = 0.8624 euros) (Additional reporting by Christian Kraemer; Editing by Friederike Heine, Jan Harvey and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Yahoo
New dinosaur species related to T. Rex discovered
Paleontologists have discovered a new species of dinosaur that was related to the infamous Tyrannosaurus rex. The dino fossils, two partial skeletons found in Gobi Desert in Mongolia in the 1970s, were recently reanalyzed after Jared Voris, a Ph.D student in the Department of Earth Energy and Environment at the University of Calgary, noticed them during a trip to Mongolia in 2023. MORE: Fossils found in North America reveal new species of 'very odd' sea monster: Scientists A Mongolian paleontologist initially attributed the fossils to a meat-eating dinosaur called electrosaurus, Darla Zelenitsky, an associate professor in the Faculty of Science at the University of Calgary, told ABC News. The fossils had not been "seriously" looked at that since then, she noted. But when Voris noticed them in a glass case at the Central Museum of Dinosaurs of Mongolia, he realized they had characteristics never before seen in a Tyrannosaurus species, he said. The skull, for instance, contained an air cavity near the nose. Large apex predators tend to have "completely solid" nose bonds, according to Voris. The way the toe bones attached to the rest of the leg was also different, Voris said. "We had recognized that this was something completely different," Voris said. MORE: Evidence of 30-foot ancient sea monster found in Mississippi The fossils were determined to belong to a new tyrannosaurid species after reexamination by the researchers, according to paper published Wednesday in Nature. The new species, named Khankhuuluu mongoliensis, is a "relatively small" Tyrannosaur, Zelenitsky said. The specimen was likely about 1,700 pounds and 13 feet in length, making it an agile runner, Zelenitsky said. The specimen was an immediate relative of the Eutyrannosaurias, which originated in North America and included T. rex, the researchers said. It was also a close ancestor to the "massive, deep-snouted" Tyrannosaurini, as well as the much smaller and shallow-snouted Alioramini, according to researchers. MORE: What paleontologists learned from fossils of a 3-eyed predator that lived 500 million years ago The discovery sheds new light on the evolution of the tyrannosaur species and dispersal patterns in the late Cretaceous period. The new species is the "missing link" between the smaller Tyrannosaurs and massive apex predators like T. rex, which weighed up to 10,000 pounds, Zelenitsky said. New dinosaur species related to T. Rex discovered originally appeared on
