Alienacanthus is a member of an extinct group of fish called placoderms
A vertebrate is defined as any animal that has a vertebral column or backbone. Most extant vertebrates have jaws, teeth, and a pair of fins or limbs.
The earliest vertebrate fossils help us understand not only how these traits arose, but also how they evolved and diversified over time.
In our research, was announced on Royal Society Open Scienceinvestigates the remains of a 365-million-year-old fish with the world’s longest underbite. Aliena Kansas Malkowski. These fossils demonstrate the diversity of jawed vertebrates at an early stage in their evolution.
ariena kanthus It is a member of an extinct group of fish called plate skin, these were some of the first jawed vertebrates. They are armored fish of various shapes and sizes and are essential to understanding vertebrate evolution and their characteristics, especially their jaws and teeth.
Together, placoderm jaws and teeth preserve evidence of feeding strategies and diets, giving us insight into what and how some of our fishy ancestors ate.
from the spine to the jaw
1957, Polish paleontologist Julian Kulczycki fossil fish explained From the Holy Cross Mountains in Poland. Among these finds were two partially broken elongated bones that he thought might be strange-looking fish fin spines. The strange shape of the so-called spines gives this animal its name. ariena kanthus.
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, members of our research team discovered several Moroccan specimens containing the same bone elements in the collections of the National Museum of Natural History in Paris. The team then discovered more specimens from Poland and Morocco, which they identified as belonging to the placoderms.
ariena kanthus It had a huge, round head, a pointed nose, and large eyes. What Kulczycki identified as the spines turned out to be in the lower jaw, which, unlike the upper jaw, extends far beyond the closed part of the mouth. The teeth were sharp and curved slightly towards the back to capture live prey, and the teeth continued even after the mouth was closed.
Unlike other placoderms, the upper jaw is ariena kanthus It was able to move slightly independently of the skull, which helped it adapt to the lower jaw.
most extreme case
The elongated lower jaw is ariena kanthus, the double length of the skull is unique among placoderms and extremely rare in other extant and fossil groups. In most animals, jaw protrusion is found in the upper jaw. swordfishor both upper and lower jaws ichthyosaur or gharial.
Among extant species, halfbeak It shows an elongated lower jaw. The body length of halfbeak is only 5 to 10 cm, ariena kanthusThe head and jaw alone reach 80 cm. The relative length of the lower jaw is also 20% longer in him than in halfbeak.
![small fish with an elongated lower jaw](https://images.theconversation.com/files/572030/original/file-20240129-29-wk61fi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip)
![small fish with an elongated lower jaw](https://images.theconversation.com/files/572030/original/file-20240129-29-wk61fi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip)
ariena kanthus It also holds the title of the oldest case of mandibular lengthening.The previous record was from a shark 310 million years ago. ornithoprion.
age of fish
ariena kanthus and relatives lived Devonian (358 million to 419 million years ago), was described by paleontologists as age of fish. During this time, different groups of fish dominated the oceans. shark, bony fish, fish without jaws Placoderms together exhibit a variety of body, head, and jaw shapes.
ariena kanthus Such a unique appearance extends its versatility to the limit. Fifteen million years after the appearance of this animal, placoderms came to an end.
The evolution of more complex jaws has allowed for a wider range of feeding and hunting methods. The oldest placoderm cells are mouth that closes quickly to catch prey.But some placoders started eats phagocytic animals with hard shells and exoskeletonsothers might have too filter feeder.
ariena kanthus As seen in marlins and some ichthyosaurs, it used its sharp teeth to catch and trap live prey, and perhaps used its elongated jaws to disrupt or damage future meals.
learn more
The further back in time we go back into the past, the more different the continents of our planet looked. In the late Devonian period, ariena kanthus Poland was located on the northeast coast of the vast ocean, and Morocco was on the south coast. The presence of the same species at both ends indicates that migration was occurring in that ocean at the time, despite sea level changes.
ariena kanthus This is just one of many recent discoveries from the Late Devonian period in Poland and Morocco. Such discoveries indicate that deposits from this age remain likely to reveal important insights into early vertebrates.
(author: Melina Jobins, Research Fellow in Evolutionary Biology, University of Zurich. Christian Kruk, Professor and Curator, Museum of Paleontology, University of Zurich, and Martin Rücklin, Research Group Leader of the Naturalis Biodiversity Center and Senior Researcher at the Leiden Institute for Biological Studies, Leiden University)
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