An international team of paleontologists has described a new species of prehistoric fish. She looked strange and even threatening. She had large fangs and scales of armor, but not only that. And this creature lived 380 million years ago in a river that is considered the oldest on Earth. The main predator of ancient rivers The study was published in The Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. Fossils of an ancient fish were discovered by Australian paleontologists from Flinders University in the Finke River. It is considered one of the oldest rivers in the world – its bed was formed about 400 million years ago, and in our time it flows only a few days a year after the rains, and its waters mainly go into the sands of the Australian Simpson. . Desert in the center of the continent. Judging by the fossils, the fish was about 40 centimeters in length, but in that distant era, according to scientists, it was the main river predator: it had a huge mouth with many sharp teeth and larger, widely spaced fangs. Her body was covered with strong bone scales to protect herself from other wild animals, of which there were many in those days. The fish, called Harajicadectes zhumini, had other remarkable properties. She had four limbs (at least that’s what they looked like) and seemed to be able to breathe air. Scientists, in addition to the gill apparatus, discovered large openings in the upper part of the skull. Researchers suggest that these structures facilitate breathing at the surface of the water. They found similar anatomical adaptations in modern African ray-finned fish. Photo: Flinders University had an advantage over its competitors The fact is that the discovered river monster lived at a time when there was little oxygen in the earth’s atmosphere. To survive, fish had to evolve to combine gill breathing with air breathing. Thanks to the holes in the skull, Harajicadectes zhumini could float to the surface and breathe air directly, as modern cetaceans do. According to scientists, similar combinations of the respiratory apparatus were found in other ancient fish. “When oxygen was scarce, their ability to supplement gill respiration with air respiration likely gave them an advantage over their competitors,” explains study co-author and professor of paleontology John Long. Brian Chu from Flinders University. Photo: Flinders University The described fossil belongs to an ancient lineage of tetrapodomorphs. Some of these animals became the ancestors of four-legged land dwellers, from which man later evolved. So this fish may be our distant ancestor.
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