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A researcher from the University of Michigan was instrumental in recognizing the earliest documented instance of a toothy, tongue-like apparatus for biting in an ancient fish, which signifies the moment 310 million years ago when fish first utilized their gill bones to innovate their feeding methods.

The species, named Platysomus, existed at the commencement of the Pennsylvanian period, a time during which a class of fish known as ray-finned fish was experimenting with new ways to sustain themselves—particularly regarding their feeding habits. Similar to many fish present today, such as goldfish, salmon, cod, and tuna, Platysomus was classified as a ray-finned fish.

U-M paleontologist Matt Friedman was a member of a team that uncovered that Platysomus possessed a plate of teeth suspended by a framework of jointed bones that also supported its respiratory gills. This plate, situated on the bottom of the mouth akin to a tongue, opposed a secondary plate of teeth above, and the fish utilized both to crush and grind its food. It turns out that Platysomus was the first to develop this feeding mechanism known as a tongue bite.

“Adaptation is one of the most powerful tools we have for comprehending evolution. We can observe how diverse species adapt to similar challenges in various ways,” remarked Friedman, also the director and curator of the U-M Museum of Paleontology.

“However, in this context, this is fascinating because it demonstrates a convergent adaptation. This extinct group of fishes devised this method, and it eventually appears that numerous groups of fishes discovered this technique at later stages. After observing such occurrences multiple times, we gain insights into the constraints of evolutionary change or potential pathways that might be simpler to evolve compared to others.”

According to Friedman, a fundamental inquiry in evolutionary biology pertains to how evolutionary outcomes transpire in various animal groups. Monitoring how distinct fish classes evolved analogous tools (tooth plates) to address similar challenges (consuming hard objects) can assist researchers in understanding whether these groups navigate comparable evolutionary paths.

This consequently allows biologists to identify shared patterns in the emergence of these structures. The study, published in the journal Biology Letters, received support from the U.S. National Science Foundation.

The term “platysomus” translates to flat-bodied, and in addition to being flat, these fish possessed a deep body. Their morphology poses challenges for locating fossils that enable researchers to examine internal structures: Upon their demise and entombment in mud, fish tend to lie on their sides, providing a clear lateral view of their bodies, shape, and some external structures, yet compression during fossilization obscures the internal configurations.

“They’re deep-bodied creatures. They bear a resemblance to an angelfish,” Friedman noted. “But not only were they flat in life, they typically become even more compressed as fossils. Thus, while complete fossil fish skeletons are frequent, extracting details of the internal skeleton is often difficult. Fossils likely preserve those regions, but they are severely flattened.”

Consequently, Friedman has dedicated a significant portion of his career to searching museum collections for uncrushed, three-dimensionally preserved fish heads that hold this type of internal information.

“Fish heads serve as an ideal target because they’re incredibly complex. They consist of numerous components, and where there are many parts, various connections arise,” Friedman explained. “These connections can manifest in different forms, forming the foundation of the variation we may use to attempt and reconstruct evolutionary history.”

While conducting CT scans of three-dimensional fish fossils in a UK museum, Friedman and his colleagues identified the distinctive internal gill skeletons within a uniquely uncrushed Platysomus head. They were astonished to discover a series of well-defined tooth plates inside the creature’s mouth. This prompted them to meticulously inspect flattened Platysomus fossils, where laborious digital dissections also unveiled the characteristic features of a tongue bite.

The contemporary fish possessing biting plates most analogous to those of Platysomus are bonefish, a game fish residing in warm tropical and subtropical waters that predominantly feed on hard-shelled prey like crabs.

Friedman emphasizes the significance of museum collections as well. The crucial fossil that underpinned his study was likely gathered over 120 years ago and probably received minimal attention since that time.

“There’s a widely held notion that, as a paleontologist, to make any groundbreaking discoveries or find anything intriguing, one must venture into the field and unearth a fossil,” Friedman stated. “That certainly has its importance. However, many fossils have already been collected, and as we refine our techniques, we discover methods to extract new data from materials that are already housed in museums.”

Friedman’s co-authors include Sam Giles from the University of Birmingham and Matthew Kolmann from the University of Louisville.

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