A big catch of fish fossils in southern China includes the oldest teeth ever found, researchers say. The findings may help scientists learn how our aquatic ancestors got their bite.
A model of prehistoric fish teeth magnified 40 times is displayed during a press conference in Beijing on September 28, 2022. But in the past, scientists haven't found many fossils to show this shift, said Matt Friedman, a University of Michigan paleontologist who was not involved in the research. They've been relying on fragments from the time — a chunk of spine here, a bit of scale there.
A field team discovered the fossil trove in 2019, Min Zhu, a paleontologist at the Chinese Academy of Sciences who led the research, said in an email. On a rainy day, after a frustrating trip that hadn't revealed any fossils, researchers explored a pile of rocks near a roadside cliff. When they split one rock open, they found fossilized fish heads looking back at them.
The most common species in the bunch is a little boomerang-shaped fish that likely used its jaws to scoop up worms, said Per Erik Ahlberg of Sweden's Uppsala University, an author onAnother fossil shows a sharklike creature with bony armor on its front — an unusual combination. A well-preserved jawless fish offers clues to how ancient fins evolved into arms and legs. While fossil heads for these fish are commonly found, this fossil included the whole body, Donoghue said..