TRIBUNNEWS.COM — Scientists reveal research results about fossil mysterious creature that has become extinct named Palaeospondylus gunni.
Animals that lived about 390 million years ago during the Middle Devonian are referred to as ancestor man.
This strange creature that looks like a fish was first discovered in fossil in Scotland in 1890.
Now, according to a new analysis of the well-preserved fossil, scientists think it was one of the earliest ancestors of tetrapods, animals with four limbs, including humans.
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“This strange animal has confused the scientist since its discovery in 1890 as an impossible puzzle to solve,” said physicist Daisy (Yuzhi) Hu of the Australian National University.
Quoted from Science Alert, Thursday (26/5/2022), there are several reasons why classifying these animals is very problematic.
Fossils of this strange fish-like creature are quite abundant, but because Palaeospondylus is so small, and fossilHis skull was so badly damaged, reconstructing the anatomy of his skull became extremely difficult.
Plus, its anatomy shares features with both jawed and jawless fish. In addition, there is also a lack of preserved dermal teeth and bones in the records fossil.
The research team, led by paleontologist Tatsuya Hirasawa of the University of Tokyo and RIKEN in Japan, tried to solve this problem by searching for specimens with the head part still firmly embedded in the rock.
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This means that the animal’s head is likely much more intact compared to the fossil with the head open.
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