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Sharks’ ancestors were veritable beasts — they had spikes and armor!
Paleontologists have discovered important fossils of the ancestors of today’s fish. Among them is a “shark” from 439 million years ago. It had fins stretched over powerful spikes, and its head was shielded by a bony carapace.
A startling paleobiological discovery has been made at an excavation site in Kuchaichou Province in southern China. Scientists have discovered unusual fossils of previously unknown fish species.
It turned out that they include the oldest known remains of animals belonging to the mandibles. That is, a group of vertebrates in which jaws developed. The oldest animal remains with jaws discovered so far were 423 million years old. Those found in China are 15 million years older.
“There were some indications that mandibles evolved much earlier than the fossil evidence suggests,” says Ivan Sansom, a paleobiologist at the University of Birmingham. — “However, we had no concrete evidence from the excavations in the form of teeth or fin rays” (i.e., the bony elements that make up the fin skeleton — ed. note).
