The oldest tadpole ever found is 161 million years old and amazingly preserved

This week, a paper published in the journal Nature detailed a tadpole fossil that proves that tadpoles existed at least 161 million years ago, in the mid-late Jurassic period.

When I first saw the fossil, I said, 'Okay, it is a tadpole, there is no doubt,' says biologist Mariana Chuliver, one of the paper authors.

I kept on looking at the pictures in amazement. I thought, 'Oh my God, this is real. This is a fossil tadpole.' So few people know what the inside of tadpoles look like.

Well-preserved tadpole fossils like this one, found in Argentina, are especially hard to come by. Tadpoles are delicate creatures.

Read at www.npr.org