Recently, researcher Xu Guanghui of the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and his graduate students Ma Xinying and Ren Yi published the latest research results on Triassic fishes in Yunnan and Guizhou in the American magazine "PeerJ". The paper describes in detail a new articulated fish that coexists with Guizhouosaurus, and names it Wang's Fuyuan fish. This is the first discovery of an articulated fish fossil in the Latin Period strata of the Middle Triassic in my country.
As early as 1957, Mr. Hu Chengzhi of the China Geological Museum conducted a field geological survey from Yunnan to Guizhou and discovered a marine reptile fossil in a small mountain village called Lvyin Village in Dingxiao Town, Xingyi City. In 1958, it was named Guizhouosaurus Hu after research by Academician Yang Zhongjian of the Institute of Paleontology. Over the next sixty years, while a large number of marine reptile fossils were collected in this area, many fish fossils were also discovered. In addition to vertebrates, there are also invertebrates such as arthropods, ammonites, and bivalves. Scientific researchers collectively call them Guizhou dragon fauna or Xingyi biota. Biostratigraphic research has determined that the age of the Guizhousaurus fauna is the Latin Period of the Middle Triassic, with an absolute age of approximately 240 million years ago. Guizhousaurus fauna is widely distributed at the junction of Yunnan and Guizhou, and has been found in Xingyi and Anlong of Guizhou, Fuyuan and Luoping of Yunnan. The hinge-tooth fish named by Xu Guanghui's research team this time is mainly based on 22 complete fossil specimens, most of which were found in the Shibalian Mountains of Fuyuan, Yunnan. Therefore, the genus was named Fuyuan Fish according to the place name. The species name is dedicated to Mr. Wang Kuan for donating two exquisite fish fossils from his personal collection to the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology.
The discovery of Fuyuanichthyus Wang made up for the lack of fossil records of the Middle Triassic Latin period arteriodon fishes in my country, and provided more information for the study of the skeletal morphology and ecology of early arterodont fishes. The gar, which lives in the freshwater environment of Central and North America and Cuba, is called a living fossil and is a living representative of the hinge-toothed fish. As an important branch of holobony fishes, arteriodontids began to develop rapidly in the Triassic. Their earliest fossil records come from the Luoping and Panxian biota of the early Middle Triassic (Annisian). The species are represented by Trichoderma spp. and St. George's fish. Xingyi Asian lepidodontids were previously classified as articulated fishes, but according to the latest research by Xu Guanghui's research team, it belongs to another branch of holoostous fishes, near herrings. Wang's Fuyuan fish has typical characteristics of hinge-tooth fish, such as two infraorbital bones in front of the orbit, a relatively short mandible, and obvious spines on the dorsal scales in front of the dorsal fin; at the same time, it has a laryngeal plate bone and a short maxilla. It has no teeth and lacks auxiliary maxillary and supraorbital bones. These characteristics make it different from other hinge-toothed fishes. The results of cladistic research show that it forms a sister group relationship with Tongodon grazeri and is located together in the hinge-toothed fish. The base position of the class. Fuyuan fish is small in size and is one of the smallest whole-boned fishes. Its discovery further supports the hypothesis that in the Middle Triassic marine environment of South China, the overall body size of amniform fishes was smaller than that of near-herring fish.
This research received financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Strategic Priority Science and Technology Project of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Key Frontier Science Project of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the Excavation and Repair of Paleontological Fossils.
Paper link: https://peerj.com/articles/6054
Figure 1: Homotype specimen and restoration of Fuyuan fish of Wang's family (Photo provided by Xu Guanghui)
Figure 2: Another complete specimen of Wang's Fuyuan fish (Photo provided by Xu Guanghui)
animal tags：
you may also like
In the North American continent during the early Eocene 50 million years ago, a fox-sized herbivore emerged from the primitive arthropods. It was called Eohorse. In fact, it was not only the ancestor of modern horses, but also It is the earliest type of the entire group of odd-dactyl animals...
During the Pliocene Epoch, the average altitude of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau was only a few hundred meters to about 1,000 meters. Scientists have accumulated extremely thick river and lake facies at an altitude of more than 4,000 meters in the Gyirong Basin on the north side of Shishapangma P...
Confuciusornis, which dates back about 125 million years ago, is one of the earliest birds known to have a horny beak in the world. It also retains a complete double-arch skull structure unique to its reptilian ancestors. This primitive Its characteristics and retained three finger claws are...
The steppe weasel Lyncodontini is a small mustelid that is now only distributed in South America. However, during the Quaternary period, the steppe weasel once spread across Eurasia, especially the European sea otter martens Enhydrictis and Pannonictis. Relatively few grassland weasel animals...
The discovery of ancient human fossils in Zhoukoudian made Bu Dasheng, who was deeply involved in the "Central Asian Fever", extremely excited. He decided to include the excavation and research of Zhoukoudian as a "related additional project" in his Central Asia expedition plan in cooperation...
The sharks we are familiar with are cartilaginous fishes. Nearly all cartilaginous fishes are marine animals. Throughout their life history (the entire process of a living organism from beginning to end), their skeletons are always cartilaginous, with the hard parts usual...
Actin-finned fishes are the most successful aquatic group of all vertebrates, occupying almost all ecological niches in waters on Earth. There are many kinds of them, varying in size, and their adaptability is like "Eight Immortals crossing the sea, each showing his magical powers"; their evo...
When the ferns of the Paleozoic Era formed the first primeval forests on earth, gymnosperms, which were more advanced than ferns, had quietly appeared in the late Devonian period. But at that time, the climate on Earth was warm and humid, ferns developed more smoothly, and gymnosperms were no...
Email: jsset#163.com (change # to @) Please indicate your purpose of visit! Guangdong ICP No. 2022053326 XML| map| Chinese
