A “lump” of 66-million-year-old fossilized vomit might be the most famous piece of puke in the world. A Danish scientist recently discovered the fossilized vomit at the Cliffs of Stevns on the island of Zealand.
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A press release from the East Zealand Museum states that fossilized vomit is “very important when reconstructing ancient ecosystems, because the finds provide important knowledge about which animals have been eaten by whom.”
In the case of this ancient pile of puke, scientists believe it belonged to an animal that had recently eaten various types of sea lilies. Sea lilies aren’t plants; they’re crinoids, a type of marine invertebrate with feathered arms. During the Cambrian through Permian periods, crinoid forests covered areas of the seafloor.
An expert who examined the vomit concluded that “the collection consisted of at least two different species of sea lilies mixed together in a round clump,” according to the museum’s press release.
See the fossilized vomit here: