Researchers in South Africa have discovered fossils dating back 360 million
years that belonged to a ferocious fish species that preyed on our
ancestors.
A new study reveals that a massive fish with lethal fangs fished river
waters on the ancient southern supercontinent Gondwana some 350 million
years ago, long before dinosaurs roamed the earth.
Its predatory nature led researchers to name it Hyneria udlezinye, or the
"one who consumes others," in IsiXhosa, a widely used Indigenous language in
the region of South Africa where the bones were discovered. This fish,
measuring up to 9 feet (2.7 meters) long, is the largest bony fish on record
from the Late Devonian (383 million to 359 million years ago).
Imagine a large predatory fish with a face similar to the front end of a
torpedo, but easily exceeding 2 meters (6.5 feet) in length, according to
research co-author
Per Ahlberg, a professor in the Department of Organismal Biology at Uppsala University
in Sweden. In addition to a row of little teeth, the mouth also included a
pair of massive fangs that may likely measure up to 5 centimeters (2 inches)
in length in the biggest individuals.
In an excavation site named Waterloo Farm near Makhanda (formerly known as
Grahamstown), South Africa, researchers found the first hints of the ancient
fish's existence in 1995. They found a collection of solitary fossilized
scales. Finally, the researchers have assembled the skeleton of the newly
discovered species of enormous tristichopterid, a kind of ancient bony fish,
in a report that was published Wednesday (Feb. 22) in the journal
PLOS One.
According to study co-author
Robert Gess, a
paleontologist and research associate at the Albany Museum and Rhodes
University in South Africa, "it's been a lengthy process ever since then,
assembling the answer to where these scales originated from."
H. udlezinye was an avid predator, as shown by the skeleton. "The body's
rear is where the fins are mostly located. An ecological trait of a predator
that lies in wait is its ability to suddenly spring into activity. Hyneria
would have waited for passing objects while hiding in the shadows "says
Gess. It's the one who ate the others.
The colossal fish apparently preyed on tetrapods, the ancestors of humans
and other four-legged animals. According to Ahlberg, "the tristichopterids
developed into monsters that most likely devoured [our ancestors]".
An excavation site in Pennsylvania, which at the time of the Late Devonian
was a component of the supercontinent Euramerica, was where previous study
discovered another species of the same genus, H. lindae.
The first proof that Hyneria existed in Gondwana comes from the fossils
found at Waterloo Farm. The latest research also shows that huge
tristichopterids existed across Gondwana, even in the polar circle and not
simply in its tropical parts.
The majority of tristichopterid fossils discovered to date have been
discovered in Australia, which distorts our understanding of where these
creatures were located. Little study has been done on other Gondwanan areas,
such as Africa and South America.
There was a belief that these enormous tristichopterids evolved in what is
now Australia — along the tropical coast of Gondwana — since Australia was
in the tropics and because all the well-sampled sites from this time period
and from Gondwana happen to be in Australia, according to Gess.
The remnants of a massive tristichopterid have now been discovered for the
first time in what would have been a polar zone at the time. The only
example we have from the arctic areas is this guild of enormous predatory
fish, according to Ahlberg.
About 359 million years ago, near the conclusion of the Devonian, a major
extinction of tristichopterids occurred. Researchers believe that a shared
ancestor with our ancestral lineage occurred earlier in the Devonian,
although they have no direct offspring now. Late Devonian tristichopterids,
according to Ahlberg, are more closely related to us than our immediate
predecessors.
