Exceptionally preserved fossils: new insights into early amphibian ecology and evolution

Amphibians are a diverse and ecologically important part of modern ecosystems, but the evolution of modern amphibian groups during the early Mesozoic is poorly understood due to a highly incomplete fossil record. Our fieldwork in the Jurassic of Scotland has recovered remarkable fossils with the potential to give fundamental new insights into the evolution and ecology of the earliest salamanders along with the oldest preserved albanerpetontid, an enigmatic amphibian group strongly divergent from modern amphibians. Due to their preservation in hard dolomite blocks, these specimens can only be studied using X-ray imaging. Pilot μCT scans have demonstrated the completeness of the material, but the resolution is insufficient because of poor noise-to-signal ratio and low contrast between bone and matrix. Synchrotron X-ray tomography can provide significantly improved resolution to observe the skeletal anatomy of these crucial specimens, providing critical new data about early amphibians.