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Among the myriad organisms preserved in amber, only four
small frogs have been discovered,
all representing the genus
Eleuthrodactylus, which is still
found in the Caribbean.
Although the Caribbean contains
very few fossils of land vertebrates
that are much older than 20 thousand
years, a diverse vertebrate fauna is
found in Dominican amber.
Eleuthrodactylus probably
bred in the water within
the bromeliads. In this piece
of amber there are the remains
of two frogs (indicated in
a line drawing you can see with a browser that supports
gif animation):
a complete frog whose backbone
is easily visible, and a portion of
another, which has decayed and
is surrounded by fly larvae.
A millipede was also caught
scavenging on frog bones.
The decaying frog probably
died while partially immersed in
resin, where it became infested,
and was then completely covered
by another resin flow.
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