Restoration map of Yunnan storm fish. (File photo)
Reporter Shen Hui
Recently, Xu Guanghui, a researcher at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, found the world's oldest fossil of wartfish in Luoping, Yunnan, named Yunnan Storm Fish. It is 34 cm long and is the largest known carnivorous basal newfin fish in the Ropin biota 244 million years ago, occupying a higher position in the food web, and its discoveries and studies have updated the understanding of the food web structure of the Ropin biota and the revival of Triassic organisms.
"Reborn after the disaster, the king returns". An important sign of the recovery of Triassic organisms following the great extinction of organisms at the end of the Permian period is the establishment of a mature food network that includes producers, primary consumers, secondary consumers and tertiary consumers (large carnivores). Luoping, Yunnan, has preserved a wealth of Triassic fish fossils, but no large carnivorous basal stem newfin fish have been found in the past. Therefore, some people believe that the living environment of the Luoping biota is shallow, and the marine ecosystem has not yet been fully restored.
"The discovery of the Yunnan storm fish has changed this understanding. Combined with the discovery of large carnivorous marine reptiles in recent years, there are indications that a mature and complex food web was established in the early Middle Triassic. Xu Guanghui said.
According to reports, the toothfish family is the largest class of carnivorous basal stem newfin fish in the Triassic, which used to be represented by the genus Wartfish, living in the middle and late Triassic marine environment in Europe and South China. The Yunnan stormfish is a close relative of the wartfish, representing the oldest genus of the wartfish family, and its maxillary margin teeth are stronger and more powerful than the wartfish, showing stronger predatory ability. The researchers used high-precision tomography to speculate that the Yunnan storm fish could prey on other small fish, crustaceans, molluscs and bivalves in the Luoping biota.
Relevant experts said that the study for the first time included the warty fish family into the branch systematics study, reconstructed the early neofin fish branch evolution tree, the results of the study is of great significance for understanding the phylogenetic relationship, radiation evolution and ecological adaptation of the main taxa of early neofin fish.
Author: Shen Hui
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Source: Economic Daily