Foreign fish sheds a new light on the development of additional teeth to threaten prey

Experts revealed the oldest known example of an additional-teeth fish deep in its mouth-fossilized fish, 310 million years old, which has developed a unique way to devour.

Platysomus Parvulus had an unprecedented dining method unprecedented in the fish that have been completed since that time-the “tongue bite”, using a special group of teeth on the ground and the mouth ceiling to help them crush difficult food such as shells or insects.

Most fish today use their jaws to hit and chew, but some also have tongue bites, which work like a second group of jaws. To date, the oldest known fish with such an arrangement has lived to teeth after about 150 million years.

Publish their results in Biology messagesThe International Research Team has used a highly tomato photography to rebuild the internal anatomy of excavation, which was discovered in carbon rock formations in the UK’s Stavordshire Province. The researchers have discovered an advanced arrangement of toothboards on the surface of the fish’s mouth and the skeleton of the gills.

“Our discovery helps us to understand how the fish developed after the extinction of the mass at the end of the Doveon, which eliminated many species. After this extinction, fish began to change and develop new body shapes and feeding methods.

“Language bites have evolved several times in different fish groups – including those modern such as salmon and bone thickness, which indicates that it is a useful tool that helps fish eating a wide range of food and survival in different environments.”

The mechanism of the bite of the tongue includes opposition groups of teeth – one on the mouth surface and the other on the gills skeleton – which works together to arrest the prey.

A unique Platysomus is uniquely preserved in 3D, allowing researchers to drive in his mouth and digitally dissect. This reveals a low-parts and a narrow upper plate, both of which carry one layer of pointed teeth-which fight a transitional stage in the development of the most advanced tongue bite systems seen in subsequent fish such as Popcranania.

The co -author Dr. Matthew Coleman, from the University of Louisville, commented, “Later, like the Popasrana Group, he had more advanced tongue bites and did not use their jaws at all, relying on their tongue to crush solid food.

Discovery supports a model for rapid innovation in the early fish of radiology after the extinction of the final block, with the experience of fish that have been implemented through new nutrition strategies.

The co -author, Professor Matt Friedman, of the University of Michigan, commented, “Long bites are only one of the many feeding innovations that appeared during this time. These fish are a major evolutionary step and help us understand how old ecosystems work and how modern fish strains have become.”