mentions fish, people's first impression is that they live in water and breathe with gills. But there is a special kind of fish that can not only breathe with gills, but also directly breathe air through the lung-like swim bladder, which is the "lungfish".
Huize Dianbipter ecological restoration map (photo courtesy of Luo Yanchao, Ma Menghui, Luo Yanchao)
The team of Zhu Min, academician of the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, discovered a lungfish about 390 million years ago in Huize County, Qujing, Yunnan A new genus and species of fossil "Huize Dianbipterus". This is the ninth species of Devonian lungfish discovered in my country. Studies have shown that it probably has different "recipes" and eating methods from other lungfishes. Relevant results have been published online in the international academic journal "Journal of Systematic Palaeontology". Luo Yanchao, the first author of the
paper and Ph.D student at the Institute of Paleospine, Chinese Academy of Sciences, introduced that with the help of high-precision CT equipment and three-dimensional restoration technology, the team conducted detailed morphological research and systematic analysis on the specimens, and discovered the Huize lungfish Has a special tooth plate type.
"Tooth plate is the symbolic structure of lungfish. It generally occupies a relatively large area in the mouth and has a considerable thickness. At the same time, there are small tooth protrusions on the occlusal surface, like a grinding disc, which can grind hard shelled food, such as Arthropod or brachiopod ." Luo Yanchao explained.
He introduced that the tooth plate of Huize lungfish only has teeth in the center. This special structure makes its upper and lower jaws only have a loose bite, and it may not be able to eat hard shelled food like other lungfishes. . "Therefore, we speculate that the lungfish is more commonly used to prey by sucking, and the food may be some fish and molluscs."
A, the holotype specimen of Dianna huizei (dorsal view); B, the 3D virtual model of the sensory tube system of Dianna huizei (dorsal view); C, the holotype specimen of Dianna huizeensis (ventral view); D , virtual three-dimensional model (ventral view) of membranous bone, vomer bone, pteroid bone and accessory sphenoid bone of Huizedian Diptera. (Photo courtesy of Luo Yanchao)
According to reports, there are currently three genera of lungfish. Lungfish are more closely related to quadrupeds, including humans, than any other fish, and the two form a "sister group." However, our ancestors "parted ways" from this relative as early as 420 million years ago "Yes.
Luo Yanchao introduced that in the traditional impression, Devonian oceans were mainly all kinds of relatively large placoderm fish. Lungfish can only wander shiveringly on the bottom of the sea "sweeping goods" The discovery of Huize lungfish has changed our understanding of the diet structure of lungfish, and also shows that lungfish may occupy a higher position in the Devonian food chain. (Reporters Jin Di, Zhang Quan)
Source: Xinhua News Agency
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