Dinosaur-Era Super-Piranha Terrorized Jurassic Seas

[Judi Lynn]

By Charles Q. Choi, Live Science Contributor | October 18, 2018 06:36pm ET

A piranha-like fish with a mouth full of pointy teeth (some even jutting down from the roof of its mouth) once swam the Jurassic seas, ripping flesh or even fins from the bodies of other aquatic creatures.

That was 152 million years ago, a new study of a fossil of the creature found in Germany revealed. At that time, pterodactyls flew in the skies and stegosaurs and brontosaurs walked the Earth. The scientists discovered the specimen in 2016 in the same limestone deposits in the south German countryside that yielded fossils of Archaeopteryx, long considered the first known bird.

Back when this fish lived, the area in which it swam "was occupied by a shallow tropical sea dotted with small, sunbathed islands, covered by a probably sparse vegetation of ferns and cycads on which exotic animals lived — numerous insects, lizards, small dinosaurs and the early bird Archaeopteryx," study lead author Martina Kölbl-Ebert, a vertebrate paleontologist and director of the Jura Museum in Eichstätt, Germany, told Live Science. "In the sea, there were sponge reefs as well as small coral reefs. There were numerous invertebrate species, such as crustaceans, but also many different fish and marine reptiles." [Photos: The Freakiest-Looking Fish]

After the scientists carefully freed the 2.8-inch-long (7.1 centimeters) fossil from its rocky prison with the help of scalpels, needles and a microscope, they discovered that it had long, pointed teeth in the front of both the upper and lower jaws. These teeth also appeared on the outside of the vomer, a bone forming the roof of the mouth. In addition, triangular teeth with serrated cutting edges jutted from the bones that lay along the side of the lower jaw.

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https://www.livescience.com/63869-super-piranha-terrorized-jurassic-seas.html

[KY_EnviroGuy]

1. Wow, the photo of the fossil is amazing and beautiful.

Unbelievably skilled and intricate work they do to expose these ancient records of nature.

Thanks for sharing, Judi Lynn.........

[Judi Lynn]

2. Can't imagine how it's done. Mind-boggling. Thanks, KY_EnviroGuy. n/t