Neurocranial anatomy of an enigmatic Early Devonian fish sheds light on early osteichthyan evolution.

Fossilized fish skulls offer heady look at distant past

29 August 2018

Meet Ligulalepis, our common fishy ancestor.

Searching in limestone outcrops of New South Wales, Australia, a team led by scientists from Flinders University recently unearthed the second skull found to date — and the most complete one yet — of this tiny prehistoric bony fish.

The researchers applied modern scanning techniques and powerful X-rays to these two preserved specimens — each only about a centimetre across — to reveal hidden features of Ligulalepis’ brain cavity. The 3D anatomical picture helped the team place the 400-million-year-old creature at the base of the evolutionary tree that leads to all bony fish, one offshoot of which includes humans and all other four-limbed vertebrates.

“This resolves the big question about what the ancestor of all modern bony fish looked like,” said Flinders paleontologist and lead study author, Alice Clement, in a press release. The results were published in the journal eLife.

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References

1. eLife 7, e34349 (2018). doi: 10.7554/elife.34349