A 66 million-year-old vomit fossil has been discovered in Denmark.
Found along the Stevns Klint coastal cliff, the fossil is regurgitated lumps of sea lily – a type of marine invertebrate.
They were eaten during the Cretaceous period tens of millions of years ago.
Fossil hunter Peter Bennicke made the discovery after splitting open a piece of chalk.
He brought the fossil to a local museum where it was cleaned up and examined by experts.
It was there John Jagt concluded the remains were sea lilies that had been eaten by an animal which then threw up the indigestible parts.
Such discoveries are invaluable to scientists because they offer a window into ancient ecosystems and reveal what predators ate and how food chains functioned millions of years ago.
The find was named Danekrae DK-1295 – Danekrae are rare natural treasures of Denmark.
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Museum curator at Geomuseum Faxe and member of the Danish Wildlife Committee Jesper Milan told Sky News it was difficult to tell exactly which animal had thrown up the remains.
But he said it was likely from something that specialised in eating things with hard shells, such as a fish or a bottom-dwelling shark.
He added: “We have found teeth from sharks that were specialised in crushing hard-shelled prey in the same area.
“They are called Heterodontus, it’s a relative of the modern Port Jackson shark. That one is high on my list of suspects.”
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Mr Milan continued: “It is truly an unusual find.
“Sea lilies are not a particularly nutritious diet, as they mainly consist of calcareous plates held together by very few soft parts.
“But here is an animal, probably a type of fish, that 66 million years ago ate sea lilies that lived on the bottom of the Cretaceous sea and regurgitated the skeletal parts back up.
“Such a find provides important new knowledge about the relationship between predators and prey and the food chains in the Cretaceous sea.”
The vomit fossil will be displayed in a special exhibition at the Geomuseum Faxe.
