160 million year old fish discovered in China
China News: A 160 million year old fish has been discovered in China, which will reveal many mysteries of the Jurassic period i.e. the dinosaur era. 16 crore year old fish has been discovered by Chinese archaeologists. In fact, Chinese archaeologists have discovered two new species of lamprey from 160 million year old fossils. Lampreys are jawless fish that look like eels. Generally they are considered parasites. They use their circular disc-shaped mouth and sharp teeth to capture prey and suck their blood.
The surprising thing is that two species of 160 million year old fish discovered in China were not only sucking blood but were also extracting flesh from their prey. The grip of their bite was so powerful that they could even break the skeleton of their prey. Researcher Feixiang Wu said that ‘living lampreys have always been known as ‘water vampires’, but their ancestors may have been meat-eaters. This is evident from the teeth of this newly discovered lamprey.
Both species found from North China
Both species were discovered in a fossil bed in northern China. Fossils of two lampreys have been found in this discovery. The first large lamprey fossil is approximately 23 inches long. Scientists have named it ‘Yanliaomyzon ossiger’. It means ‘killer’ in Latin. The smaller species measures about 11 inches in size and is named ‘Yanliaomyzon incendentes’. This name means ‘large-toothed’ in Latin.
This is how scientists found out
The fossils from which these two lampreys were discovered were well preserved. They were in such good condition that scientists could easily determine the bite structure and mouth discs of these creatures from the fossil. “No other lamprey fossils have been found since the dinosaur era,” said Tetsuto Miyashita, a paleontologist at the Canadian Museum of Nature. Whose dangerous mouth structure has been well preserved.
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