{"id":616462,"date":"2026-09-30T15:18:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-30T15:18:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/616462\/"},"modified":"2026-09-30T15:18:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-30T15:18:10","slug":"stomach-liver-and-intestines-of-245-million-year-old-marine-reptile-unearthed-in-chinese-mountains","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/616462\/","title":{"rendered":"Stomach, liver and intestines of 245 million year old marine reptile unearthed in Chinese mountains"},"content":{"rendered":"

An international team of researchers has described a remarkable fossil<\/a> of the long-necked marine reptile\u00a0Austronaga minuta\u00a0that lived around 245 million years ago, providing the oldest known example of a largely complete digestive system in a reptile<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The research was conducted by scientists from China, Germany, Switzerland, the UK and the USA. The findings were\u00a0published<\/a>\u00a0in the journal\u00a0Science Advances\u00a0in July 2026.<\/p>\n

The almost completely preserved fossil was recovered from the Guanling Formation, Luoping, eastern Yunnan Province, China \u2013\u00a0what used to be eastern Tethys Ocean<\/a> back in the Triassic period.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The fossil offers the first detailed view of this prehistoric animal\u2019s entire skeleton and large parts of its digestive system. Using various examination methods, including UV light photography and mass spectrometry, the researchers identified several internal organs, such as the stomach, liver and intestines.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cCompared with the highly specialised body shape of\u00a0Austronaga, its internal organs seem less modified. The preserved organs include a large, sac-like stomach at the front, followed by a strikingly red liver in which traces of haemoglobin can still be detected,\u201d said Dr Wei Wang, marine reptile expert at the Institute of Vertebrate Palaeontology and Palaeoanthropology in Beijing and lead author of the study.<\/p>\n

\u201cBehind this is a long, simple tube forming the small and large intestines. The overall arrangement shows that the digestive system of\u00a0Austronaga\u00a0was relatively simple in structure.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to co-author Dr Nick Fraser of the National Museums Scotland,\u00a0Austronaga\u00a0had only a single stomach chamber, in contrast with today\u2019s birds and crocodiles, which have a two-part stomach.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis shows that the stomachs of archosaurs were initially quite simple and only evolved later in the evolutionary process.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is also striking that\u00a0Austronaga\u00a0had a fairly short and uncomplicated digestive tract, very similar to that of today\u2019s fish-eating reptiles,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Reconstruction of the long-necked marine reptile Austronaga minuta. Credit: Gabriel Ugueto<\/p>\n

Early adaptation<\/p>\n

Although long-necked marine reptiles were common in the seas of today\u2019s China during the Triassic period (with several species unearthed as fossils),\u00a0Austronaga minuta is quite unique. Despite being only 60cm long, the animal had a strikingly long neck and tail and was impressively well adapted to life in water. It used its long tail for propulsion, and its elongated, fin-like front legs for steering and stabilisation. Its hind legs were not very useful for swimming.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The unusual body shape of this ancient reptile is so surprising to scientists because Austronaga minuta is not closely related to the other famous fossil sea reptiles, including ichthyosaurs or giant mosasaurs it shares this method of swimming with. Instead,\u00a0it’s related to land-dwelling archosaurs \u2013 a group that includes crocodiles<\/a> and dinosaurs<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe archosaurs and their ancestors were the most diverse group of reptiles on land during the time of the dinosaurs, but we always thought that their adaptation to life in the sea was limited,\u201d said Dr Stephan Spiekman, a palaeontologist at the State Museum of Natural History Stuttgart and the University of Honenheim, and co-author of the study.<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, the discovery of\u00a0Austronaga\u00a0shows that early representatives of this lineage had already developed complex adaptations to life in the oceans, comparable to those of other, better-known groups of fossil marine reptiles.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read the full findings\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Top image: Skeleton of the holotype of\u00a0Austronaga minuta. Credit: Wang et al. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An international team of researchers has described a remarkable fossil of the long-necked marine reptile\u00a0Austronaga minuta\u00a0that lived around…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":616463,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[111,139,69,147],"class_list":["post-616462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616462","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=616462"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616462\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/616463"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=616462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=616462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=616462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}