Discovery of a New Species of Giant Predator Fish 36 Million Years Old

Nationalgeographic.co.id—Paleontologists at Uppsala University report finding a new species of giant predatory fish. This fish lived 360 million years ago in what is now South Africa.

The findings have been described in the journal PLoS ONE by title “A high latitude Gondwanan species of the Late Devonian tristichopterid Hyneria (Osteichthyes: Sarcopterygii).“

The new species of predatory fish belongs to the tristichopterid group and has been identified as growing up to 3 m (10 ft) long and belonging to the extinct genus Hyneria.

This new species is a member of the Tristichopteridae, a diverse and successful group of tetrapodomorph fish that existed throughout the Middle and Late Devonian.

Within this group sizes ranged from a few tens of centimeters (genus Tristichopterus) to several meters (Hyneria and Eusthenodon).

“The Tristichopterid fish represent a sister group of elpistostegalians and digit-linking tetrapods,” said Robert Gess of the Albany Museum and Department of Geology at the University of Rhodes and Professor Per Ahlberg of the Department of Organismal Biology at Uppsala University.

“They achieved worldwide distribution during the latter part of the Devonian period, before becoming extinct during the late Devonian mass extinction event.”

“Most known species have been recovered from either tropical to subtropical Euramerican sediments or alternately from Australia which, towards the end of the Devonian, formed the low-latitude northern edge of Gondwana,” the researchers added.

Some fossil specimens Hyneria of the glandse was found in the high-latitude lagerstätte of Gondwana on Waterloo Farms near Makhanda/Grahamstown in South Africa.

The preserved material consists of most of the skin skull, mandibles, gill covers and shoulder girdle.

“The Hyneria material from Waterloo Farm consists mostly of skin bone, although some elements of the axial skeleton and paired fins are also preserved,” said the paleontologist.