A 240 million year old fossil unearthed in China still has its last meal inside. Scientists found the remains of a fish in the stomach of an ancient aquatic reptile. It is the oldest preserved reptile stomach ever discovered.
A Triassic predator caught mid digestion
The fossil belongs to a species called Dinocephalosaurus orientalis, a long necked marine reptile that lived during the Triassic period. Researchers from China, the United Kingdom, and the United States studied the specimen. They found fish bones and scales in the animal's stomach region. The fish was a type of prehistoric bony fish known as a perleidiform. The meal was not fully digested, which gave scientists a rare look at the reptile's diet.
Found in Guizhou province, a fossil hotspot
The fossil was excavated in Guizhou province in southern China. This region is known for rich marine fossil deposits from the Triassic era. Local paleontologists have long cared about these finds because they help piece together life before the dinosaurs. The discovery adds to a growing collection of well preserved fossils from the area that show how ancient ecosystems worked.
What the stomach contents reveal
The fish remains were concentrated in one area of the reptile's body, confirming they were inside the stomach and not just scattered nearby. This allowed scientists to confirm the reptile ate fish as a regular part of its diet. The fossil also shows that Dinocephalosaurus orientalis swallowed its prey whole or in large pieces. The find pushes back the known record of preserved stomach contents in reptiles by millions of years.
This fossil offers a direct snapshot of a single moment in the Triassic period. It confirms what scientists had long suspected about the eating habits of these ancient marine reptiles. The discovery in China adds a concrete data point to the history of predator prey relationships in the fossil record.
