Recently,
Chinese researchers studied a
dusty fossil in the specimen library and
discovered an armored fish from the Devonian Period 390 million years ago - Oriental Fish.
This fish is the armored fish with the largest number of gill pouches known so far. The number of gill pouches can reach up to 45 pairs, which is more than 7 times that of the most primitive armored fish in the Silurian period.
related research results
were published online in " Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology ".
Oriental fish ecological restoration map. Pictures provided by the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, illustrated by Yang Dinghua
"This study reports the Middle Devonian armored fish fossils for the first time in Yunnan Province, and is also the second time to report the Middle Devonian armored fish fossils in my country so far. It will be the genus Oriental Fish. The survival era extended from the Early Devonian Bragg Period 410 million years ago to the Middle Devonian Eiffel Period 390 million years ago, and continued for about 20 million years. " Corresponding author of the paper , Ancient Chinese Academy of Sciences. Gai Zhikun, a researcher at the Institute of Vertebrate Zoology and Paleoanthropology, said.
As we all know, gills are the most important respiratory organ of fish and an important place for oxygen exchange. However, among armored fishes, the number of gill pouches varies greatly among different groups and is one of the important basis for classification.
Photos and restorations of Oriental fish fossils (photographed by Gai Zhikun, painted by Guo Xiaocong)
Early armored fishes had fewer gill pouches, with only 6-7 pairs of gill pouches, which may represent the ancestral state of armored fishes. During the Silurian -Devonian period, the number of gill sacs of armored fishes continued to increase, and by the time of Orientalis, it already had 45 pairs of gill sacs. "The doubling of the number of gill sacs in armored fish has always been an evolutionary phenomenon that is difficult to explain." Gai Zhikun said.
This new discovery shows that Oriental fish has the largest number of gill pouches in history, which may be an evolutionary response of armored fish to the recurring ocean anoxia events in the Early Devonian, and also the reason why Oriental fish survived into the Middle Devonian. The secret lies in.
The discovery this time
also adds new members to the "dummy family"
How many of these minnows in the ancient fish kingdom do you know?
Source: Science and Technology Daily
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