Scientists are uncovering new details about some of the earliest fish that lived on Earth more than 400 million years ago. The latest analysis from two separate studies is helping researchers better understand ancient lungfishes, a group that represents the closest living relatives of land vertebrates.
These findings come from research led by teams in Australia and China. Their research builds on decades of research by Flinders University palaeontologists studying fossils from the famous Gogo Formation in northern Western Australia, as well as collaborations with scientists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Studies of both modern and fossil lungfish provide important anatomical evidence about how tetrapods evolved. Tetrapods are limbed vertebrates, including humans, that eventually transitioned from living in water to living on land.
CT scan reveals new details of gogo lungfish fossil
A mysterious fossil unearthed from the Late Devonian Gogo Formation in Washington state has been investigated using advanced imaging techniques such as CT scans and computed tomography. The survey results are Canadian Journal of Zoology.
Lead author Dr Alice Clement, from Flinders University’s Paleontology Laboratory, said the study was gradually uncovering the amazing diversity of lungfish preserved at the Gogo fossil site. The study also revisits older specimens that were previously too damaged to be studied in detail.
One such fragmentary fossil has proven particularly valuable. Its origins stem from what scientists believe to be Australia’s first ‘Great Barrier Reef’, a Devonian reef system in the Kimberley region of northern WA.
“This unusual specimen was so enigmatic that the authors, who first described it in 2010, thought it might be an entirely new type of fish that science had never seen before,” explains Dr. Clement, from the School of Science and Engineering.
“Now, using high-tech scanning, we were able to create comprehensive new digital images of the outside and inside of the skull, revealing the complexity of this fascinating lungfish’s brain cavity,” she says.
“In fact, we were also able to confirm that the previous impression was probably seen upside down.”
Co-author Hannah Thiele worked with multiple museums and research facilities, including the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organization (ANSTO), to analyze the fossils using advanced imaging tools.
“We were able to compare the best-preserved inner ear region to other gogo lungfishes, which is an additional data point in an amazing collection of lungfish and early vertebrate species,” she says.
“This deepens our broader understanding of the evolution of these early lobe-finned fishes, not only in Gondwana but around the world.”
Ancient Chinese lungfish skull reveals evolutionary clues
Another study published in a journal current biology We’ll highlight another notable fossil discovery. Researchers have reconstructed the skull of an early lungfish species known as the lungfish. paleolophusabout 410 million years ago, lived in the ocean that once covered what is now southern China.
Flinders researcher Dr Brian Chu collaborated with scientists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, led by the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology in Beijing. Research team names new fossil species Paleolophus yunnanensis (“Yunnan’s old emblem”).
”paleolophus This gives us an unprecedented look at the period between the early appearance of lungfish and their great diversification millions of years later,” said Dr Chew, from Flinders University’s School of Science and Engineering.
“It was a time when this group was just beginning to develop unique feeding adaptations that served them well throughout the rest of the Devonian period and into the present day.”
Lungfish represent a very ancient lineage on the vertebrate family tree. Dr Chew points out that these include still living species such as the Australian lungfish of Queensland, which has long intrigued scientists because of its close evolutionary relationship to quadrupeds and four-limbed vertebrates, including humans.
“This unique lungfish skull, unearthed from 410-million-year-old rocks in Yunnan province, provides us with important insights into the rapid evolutionary diversification during the Early, Middle, and Late Devonian periods.”
Dr Choo added that the fossil shows both similarities and differences when compared to the oldest and most primitive. devil Fossils from southern China, uranolophus From Wyoming, USA and Dipnorhynchus, Australia.
The Chinese research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (92255301 and 42302005) and the Australian Research Council Discovery Project (DP 220100825).
Gogo’s research was supported by funding from the Australian Research Council (ARC DP 220100825). Researchers acknowledge that the Goonyandi community and nation have access to their land, fossils and knowledge.
