Qiao Tuo and others from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences recently reported online in the magazine "Alcheringa" about the lungfish from the Lower Devonian Yujiang Formation in Guangxi, my country - Kassel's Beakfish (Cathlorhynchus zengi), providing conclusive evidence for the discovery of fossils of the family Dipnorhynchidae outside Australia.
Lungfish is one of the only three remaining lobe-finned fishes (lungfishes, coelacanths, and tetrapods). It is also a famous "living fossil". The study of lungfish began in the history of evolutionary biology. played an important role. There are only 3 genera and 6 species of living lungfish, but lungfish were very prosperous in the Devonian Period. From 1811 to the present, about 80 genera and nearly 250 species of fossil lungfish have been discovered, of which 49 genera were found in the Devonian strata. middle. Typical lungfish are very specialized, with unique features such as palatal tooth plates; quadratic palatine and endocranial healing; and two pairs of nostrils opening on the ventral side of the brain to adapt to crushing feeding and life at the interface between land and water. . The earliest representatives of lungfish are Diabolepis, which was found in the Lohokovian strata of the Early Devonian in Yunnan, and Uranolophus and Webster's Beakfish, which were found in the Braggian strata of North America and Europe. Westollrhynchus). The bones behind the head of these primitive lungfishes are still similar to those of other early lobe-finned fishes, but the teeth and skulls have been specialized in the morphology of typical lungfishes.
The family Lungfish is the original Devonian lungfish, and its typical representatives include Dipnorhynchus, Cathlorhynchus and Speonesydrion. In the past, these three genera of lungfish were only reported in Australia and were considered endemic to Australia. Although Zhang Miman and others once classified Erikia from the Amesian strata in Yunnan, my country, into the family Lungfish, this classification has been controversial because its tooth plate has not been found. The Kassel's Beakfish reported by Qiao Tuo and others this time is a well-preserved mandibular tooth plate specimen provided by Zeng Guangchun, a fossil enthusiast in Guangxi. This specimen is very similar to the type species of the genus Cassirus in the dentition, dentition and ventral symphysis, and can undoubtedly be assigned to the genus Cassirus and becomes the family of the family Lungfish outside Australia. Definitive evidence found. The article also conducted a phylogenetic analysis of the Devonian lungfish, confirming the conclusion that Erica belongs to the family Lungfish. Lungfish fossil evidence shows that my country's South China Plate and the Australian Plate had close paleogeographic connections during the Early Devonian Amesian, confirming the hypothesis that southern my country is the center of the origin and evolution of lobe-finned fishes.
Figure 1 Specimens of Kassel's Beakfish
Figure 2 Phylogenetic relationships and evolutionary routes of early Devonian lungfishes
animal tags：
you may also like
We already know that based on the development of the temporal part of the skull, that is, the relationship between the development and changes of the temporal foramen, scientists divide reptiles (classes) into four subclasses, namely Anosus, Monossus, and Platysus. and Dicypodia. On this basi...
The reduction in the number of fingers or toes has occurred many times in the evolution of tetrapods. The most famous example is the "Horse Fossil Sequence" (this is a series of equine fossils from primitive to progressive, which reveal the gradual reduction of limbs to one digit in the evolu...
The authoritative American scientific journal "Science" published on December 8, 2000 will publish a scientific research paper by Zhang Fucheng and Zhou Zhonghe, young scientists from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, reporting on the...
Vertebrates are the highest group in the animal kingdom. They form a subphylum of the phylum Chordata in the animal kingdom - the subphylum Vertebrates. Vertebrate skeleton pattern diagram There is a spine in the body of vertebrates, which is connecte...
The earliest true beasts were insectivores (order) that appeared in the Cretaceous. After entering the Cenozoic Era, the eutherians differentiated from this basis and evolved at a very fast speed, resulting in a wide range of adaptive radiation. The first change in the history of Cenozoic mam...
Considering how diverse snakes are today (nearly 500 genera, about 3,000 named species), we still know very little about their ultimate origins. Apparently, these cold-blooded, slithering, legless creatures evolved from four-legged reptilian ancestors that were either small, cave-dwelling, la...
Most conchovertebrates are small amphibians, adapted to life in shallow water and swamps. They first appeared in the Early Carboniferous Epoch and became extinct at the end of the Paleozoic Era, never flourishing. They are generally divided into three orders: Salamanders, Salamanders, and Amp...
During the Devonian period, the earliest lobe-finned fishes appeared and differentiated into two major categories: lungfishes (order) and lobe-finned fishes (order). Unlike ray-finned fishes, early lobe-finned fishes had a suprafungal lobe located above the body axis on t...
Email: jsset#163.com (change # to @) Please indicate your purpose of visit! Guangdong ICP No. 2022053326 XML| map| Chinese
