The flesh-eating fish, similar to those of Piranha, moulted terrorized Jurassic seas

According to new research, piranha-like creatures able to bite pieces of flesh from their victims appeared 150 million years ago.

Presentation Piranhamesodon pinnatomus– the oldest finely fleshed and carnivorous bony fish, a family of fish that now includes trout, grouper and cod. At the end of the Jurassic, about 150 million years ago, sharks (which are cartilaginous fish) and turtles were able to cut themselves into flesh with teeth. But it was supposed that the bony fish could eat only plankton and crushed shells, or swallow their whole prey. The discovery of P. pinnatomus shows that there was at least one sharp species around the flesh during this period. The details of this discovery were published today in Current Biology,

The almost complete fossil of this fish strangely similar to piranha has been discovered in German limestone deposits 150 million years old.

"At that time, the southern part of Germany was occupied by a shallow tropical sea dotted with small sun-drenched islands, covered with a vegetation spared of ferns and cycads on which lived exotic animals: many insects, lizards, small dinosaurs and archeopteryx early risers, "said Gizmodo Martina Kölbl-Ebert, co-author of the study and researcher at the Jura-Museum Eichstätt. "In the sea, there were coral reefs and small coral reefs. There were many species of invertebrates such as ammonites, squids or crustaceans, but also many fish and marine reptiles. "

The new species described is unique in that it has distinctly piranha-shaped teeth, which Mr Kölbl-Ebert says to probably use to bite pieces of flesh from other fish. Remarkably, Kölbl-Ebert, along with co-author David Bellwood of James Cook University, have found evidence to prove it. Fossils of fish found in the same limestone deposit had wounds that were consistent with bite marks, such as missing pieces of fish's fins, possibly caused by a creature much like P. pinnatomus.

"It's an amazing parallel with modern piranhas, which feed primarily on flesh but not on other fish's fins," Cook said in a statement. "It's a remarkably smart move: the fins are pushing back, a renewable resource. Feed on a fish and he died; nibble on his fins and you have food for the future. "

Kölbl-Ebert and Cook analyzed the fossil using a microscope, but they also performed a computed tomography scan to examine the back of the fossil and inside its mouth . They also measured various features, such as muscle length and jaw lever, to estimate the bite force exerted by the fish and compare it to other contemporary and modern fishes, including the piranhas.

The results revealed long pointed teeth and a bone forming the roof of the mouth and the upper and lower jaws. Importantly, it had triangular teeth with serrated edges. Researchers say his mouth was perfectly able to split in flesh or fins.

"Judging by the shape of the body and the morphology of the fin, our fish swam slowly, but was very manageable," Kölbl-Ebert told Gizmodo. "He lived in the sponges and coral reefs, where he would have seemed rather unobtrusive, resembling any other contemporary coral fish. Since all the other fish in this group ate hard-shelled organisms, such as shells or sea urchins, they could have hid in this crowd and attacked their reckless prey with great efficiency. "

Which is particularly amazing about P. pinnatomus it is not related to the modern piranha, so it is a striking example of convergent evolution, where similar traits occur in unrelated species.

"We were stunned by the fact that this fish had the teeth of a piranha," said Kölbl-Ebert. "It comes from a group of fish, the pycnodontidae, famous for their brittle teeth. It's like finding a sheep with a snout like a wolf. But what was even more remarkable was that it was Jurassic. "

The discovery of P. pinnatomus suggests that fish capable of tearing flesh appeared earlier in paleontological records than previously assumed. Another interesting aspect of the discovery is that P. pinnatomusunlike today's freshwater piranhas, they lived in the salty ocean.

"The new discovery represents the first record of a bony fish that nibbles other fish, and what's more, it did it in the sea," Bellwood said. "So when the 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.

Ah, the Jurassic. We were expecting nothing less from this remarkably brutal period in the history of evolution.