PeerJ: Yunnan Luoping found the world's oldest fossil of wartfish - "Yunnan Storm Fish"
The "Yunnan Storm Fish" (top) compares to the size of other Luoping fish (bottom).
High-precision tomography of the head of the "Yunnan Storm Fish"
Newly reconstructed evolutionary tree of early neofin fish branches
(Mysterious Earth uux.cn report) According to China News Network: Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Institute of Paleovertebrates of the Chinese Academy of Sciences) released news on the 21st that Xu Guanghui, a researcher at the Institute, recently found the world's oldest known fossil of wartfish in Luoping, Yunnan, named "Yunnan Storm Fish". It is 34 cm long and is the largest known carnivorous basal stem newfin fish in the Ropin biota 244 million years ago (Middle Triassic Anni), occupying a higher position in the food chain web.
The discovery and research of the "Yunnan Storm Fish" has updated people's understanding of the food chain network structure of the Luoping biota and the recovery of Triassic organisms. This important achievement paper in the field of paleontological evolution has been published in the latest issue of peerJ, an international academic journal.
Researcher Xu Guanghui pointed out that after the great extinction of organisms at the end of the Permian, an important symbol of the recovery of Triassic organisms is the establishment of a mature food chain network, including producers, primary consumers, secondary consumers and tertiary consumers (large carnivores). Luoping, Yunnan province, is rich in Triassic fish fossils, but no large carnivorous basal newfin fish have been found in the past. This has led some to argue that the living environment of the Luoping biota is shallow and that marine ecosystems have not yet been fully restored.
The discovery of the "Yunnan Storm Fish" changed this understanding, and combined with the discovery of large carnivorous marine reptiles in recent years, it further suggests that a mature and complex food chain network had been established in the early Middle Triassic.
He said that the wartfish family is the largest class of carnivorous basal stem newfin fish in the Triassic, which used to be mainly represented by the genus Wartfish, living in the central and late Triassic marine environments of Europe and South China, with a body length of up to 65 cm. The newly discovered "Yunnan Storm Fish" is a close relative of the wartfish, which is currently only found in Luoping, Yunnan, and represents the oldest genus of the wartfish family.
Compared with warty fish, the upper and lower jaw margin teeth of the "Yunnan Storm Fish" are stronger and more powerful, showing stronger predatory ability. Using high-precision tomography technology, it was found that the "Yunnan Storm Fish" is similar to the warty fish, and has thick teeth on the inner side of the jaw and the wing bone inside the mouth, which can crush the shell of the prey. It is speculated that the "Yunnan Storm Fish" can prey on other small fish, crustaceans, molluscs and bivalves in the Luoping biota.
Xu Guanghui said that taking the discovery of "Yunnan Storm Fish" as an opportunity, the latest study for the first time included the wartfish family into the branch systematics study, reconstructing the early neofin fish branch evolution tree, which is of great significance for understanding the phylogenetic relationships, radiation evolution and ecological adaptation of the main taxa of early neofin fish.