Permian Feeding Remains: A Study of Bromalites from Bromacker (Thuringia, Germany)
Bromalites — fossilised digested remains — are of high scientific value as they offer insights into the behavioural ecology and physiology of extinct organisms, including evidence of predator-prey interactions. These remains can be preserved either internally within body fossils (e.g., oralites, gastrolites, cololites) or externally, as separate entities (e.g., coprolites, regurgitalites). They are exceptionally rare, especially from Palaeozoic terrestrial deposits. The early Permian Bromacker locality in central Germany (Tambach Formation) yields outstanding fossilised vertebrate traces associated with skeletal remains. Here, we describe the first two bromalites from the Bromacker locality, identified as a regurgitalite (fossilised vomit) and a coprolite (fossilised faeces). Elemental mapping reveals differences of phosphorous concentration between the two bromalites, allowing a clear distinction between coprolitic and regurgitated remains. While the coprolite contains cranial and post-cranial elements of the small trematopid temnospondyl Rotaryus gothae, the regurgitalite preserves skeletal remains assignable to at least four different taxa: Eudibamus cursoris, Thuringothyris mahlendorffae, a diadectid and a dissorophoid. Based on their size and content, we hypothesise that these bromalites were most likely produced by a terrestrial apex predator, such as the sphenacodontid Dimetrodon teutonis or the varanopid Tambacarnifex unguifalcatus, previously recorded from the Bromacker locality. These findings provide new insights into the behavioural ecology and trophic structure of the Bromacker ecosystem and of terrestrial tetrapod ecosystems in general.
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Author
Arnaud* Rebillard1, Andreas Jannel2, Lorenzo Marchetti3, Mark J. MacDougall4, Christopher Hamann3, Jean Sébastien Steyer5, Grace Townsend6, Jörg Fröbisch7Institutionen
1Museum für Naturkunde Leibniz-Institut für Evolutions- und Biodiversitätsforschung, Berlin, Germany;Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Institut für Biologie, Berlin, Germany;Centre de Recherches en Paléontologie – Paris, Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris, France; 2Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool, United Kingdom; 3Museum für Naturkunde Leibniz-Institut für Evolutions- und Biodiversitätsforschung, Berlin, Germany; 4Cape Breton University, Sydney, Nova Scotia, Canada; 5Centre de Recherches en Paléontologie – Paris, Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris, France; 6Museum für Naturkunde Leibniz-Institut für Evolutions- und Biodiversitätsforschung, Berlin, Germany;University of Helsinki, Finland; 7Museum für Naturkunde Leibniz-Institut für Evolutions- und Biodiversitätsforschung, Berlin, Germany;Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Institut für Biologie, Berlin, GermanyVeranstaltung
Geo4Göttingen 2025Datum
2025DOI
10.48380/dxa2-y676
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