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7.1 cm in standard length, from the Upper Jurassic Ettling, in the archipelago of Solnhofen, Germany, the oldest piranha-like finfish with a piranha. (Credit: Mr. Ebert)
This is a fish that definitely belonged to the Jurassic brand – bite mark, that is.
According to a new study, a 150 million-year-old Piranha-type fish has been discovered, able to tear the flesh of the bones of its prey.
Fish, Piranhamesodon pinnatomus, lived at the end of the Jurassic, when sharks and turtles feasted on sea creatures using their teeth and their dinosaurs roamed the earth. However, it was thought that fish only ate plankton and crushed shells or swallowed all their food; the presence of teeth surprised the researchers.
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"The teething pattern, tooth shape, jaw morphology and mechanics are all indicators of a suitable feeding device for cutting flesh or fins, thus paving the way for a new ecological niche ", sums up the study. "The evidence suggests that he may have exploited the aggressive mimicry alongside the feeding habits of the modern piranha."
This illustration shows an artist's reconstruction of the fish's head resembling the piranha. The remains of a piranha-like species 150 million years old – the oldest known flesh-eating fish – have been discovered in a German quarry. (Credit: SWNS)
The synopsis continues: "Fossil fish recovered from the same deposits as the new pyknodontiform have fin and fin lesions.As a piranha-like marine fish and a contemporary dinosaur, it is the oldest actinopterygian eater in the world. known flesh, revealing a remarkable convergence evolution with the modern piranhas ".
The study was published in the scientific journal cellular biology.
These elderly dinosaur piranhas were discovered in German limestone, in the Ettling quarry, in the Solnhofen region.
The co-authors of the study, Dr. Martina Kölbl-Ebert and Professor David Bellwood of the James Cook University, were "stunned" by the results, comparing this to the research of one. "sheep with a dog looking like a wolf". They were able to use CT scans to examine fossilized fish and estimate characteristics such as bite force and then compare them to modern piranhas.
"But what was even more remarkable was that it came from the Jurassic," Dr. Kölbl-Ebert said in a statement. "The fish we know, the bony fish, just did not bite the flesh of the fish at that time.The sharks were able to bite pieces of flesh, but throughout history, the Bony fish have been fed on invertebrates or have largely swallowed their entire prey – pieces of flesh or fins was something that came much later. "
Bellwood was amazed by the similarity of these fish with modern piranhas, which do not eat living flesh as is commonly thought, but the fins of other fish.
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"It's an amazing parallel with modern piranhas, who do not feed primarily on flesh but on other fish's fins," Bellwood said in its statement. "It's a remarkably smart move on fin regeneration, a neat and renewable resource, feed a dead fish, munch on its fins and you'll have something to feed your future."
Piranhas sometimes eat small mammals, but this is usually when the animal is already dead.
Scientists say that the "remarkable" bony fish lived in the sea at the same time as the dinosaurs roamed the earth and had the teeth of a piranha, that he had the habit of biting into pieces of other fish flesh. (Credit: SWNS)
Although P. pinnatomus is not related to the modern freshwater piranha, its similarities (such as its long pointed teeth and strong jaws) highlight "the extraordinary example of versatility and evolutionary opportunism" that took place in the salt sea millions of years ago.
"The new discovery represents the first record of a bony fish that nibbles other fish, and what's more, it was doing it at sea," Bellwood said. "So when dinosaurs walked on the land and small dinosaurs tried to fly with the pterosaurs, the fish swam around their feet and tore their fins or flesh."
Follow Chris Ciaccia on Twitter @Chris_Ciaccia
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