Jakarta –
Two species of very large lamprey fossils have been discovered in China. This finding helps explain how this strange sea animal became a major parasitic predator in the oceans of the Jurassic period.
Lampreys are primitive fish with an eel-like appearance that use their mouths full of sharp teeth to latch onto other fish and suck blood. Therefore, it is also nicknamed the vampire fish.
Most of these species have complex life cycles consisting of several stages. They are originally blind filter-feeding larvae, often living in mud bottoms on the banks of freshwater rivers. Eventually, they metamorphose into adult lampreys that feed on the flesh of other fish to suck their blood and act as parasites.
There are about 40 species of lamprey alive today and they have been around for a long time. The fossil record links them to ancient jawless fish ancestors that lived about 450 million years ago, meaning they have been on Earth longer than trees.
However, because few lamprey fossils have been found, many aspects of their evolutionary history are unclear, such as when their complex teeth evolved. Therefore, these two newly described specimens may help fill gaps in knowledge about the creature.
Their fossil remains were discovered in an area known as the Yanliao Biota, a collection of preserved fossils in northeastern China that date to the Middle to Late Jurassic period (174 to 145 million years ago). This particular specimen was found in layers that indicate they lived 160 million years ago.
These two new species are very large among their kind. Yanliaomyzon oxysor, measuring more than 60cm while the other is slightly smaller and is named Yanliaomyzon ingensdentes. The researchers noted the new species was about 10 times the length of the earliest known lamprey.
The fossils feature beautifully preserved oral discs that represent mouths. Most importantly, this disc shape provides evidence that lampreys had developed a perfect feeding structure, indicating that they were predators in the Jurassic period.
Quoted from IFL Sciencethese findings also imply that modern lampreys originated in the Southern Hemisphere in the Late Cretaceous, rather than the Northern Hemisphere, as the fossils closely resemble Southern Hemisphere pitcher lampreys, indicating the meat-eating habits of modern lampreys.
“Overall, the lamprey fossils here suggest that the group was not as conservative as previously thought, and that their innovative feeding biology may underlie the evolutionary increase in body size and the ‘modernization’ of their life history during the Jurassic period,” the researchers wrote.
Watch the video “Hey! Ancient blood-sucking eels appear again”
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2023-11-01 13:50:49
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