A fragment of fossilized vomit has been discovered in the white limestone cliffs of Stevns Klint on the Danish island of Zealand. The cliffs are among the best visual evidence of the meteorite impact that caused the extinction of the dinosaurs, and they have been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2014.
These types of finds are rare. Scientifically, they are referred to as regurgitalites and are considered highly important for reconstructing ancient ecosystems, as they provide key information about which animals were consumed by others.
The discovery was made by local fossil hunter Peter Bennicke, who found a small, peculiar cluster of fragments of sea lilies in a piece of chalk he had just split open. He took his find to the Geomuseum Faxe, where it was cleaned and studied by Dutch sea lily expert John Jagt.
The expert concluded that the cluster consisted of at least two different species of sea lilies mixed into a rounded group and that these must be remains of sea lilies consumed by an animal that later regurgitated the indigestible parts.
Museum inspector Jesper Milàn explains: It’s truly an unusual find. Sea lilies aren’t particularly nutritious, as they’re mostly made up of calcium carbonate plates held together by very few soft parts. But here we have an animal, probably a type of fish, that 66 million years ago consumed sea lilies living on the seabed of the Cretaceous sea and regurgitated the skeletal parts. This type of discovery provides new and important information about predator-prey relationships and food chains in the oceans of the Cretaceous period.
The fragment has been declared a danekræ and will soon be featured in a small special exhibit at the Geomuseum Faxe. The term danekræ was introduced in 1989 as a designation for natural objects of exceptional natural-historical value found in the ground.
Like danefæ, danekræ belong to the state and must be handed over to one of the state’s natural history museums. The Danekræ Committee, established by the Natural History Museum of Denmark, decides whether submitted finds should be declared danekræ.
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