420-million-year-old 'armored' fish

Chinese scientists have discovered a rare fossil fragment of an "armored" fish, dating back 420 million years.

"Armored" fish may have thrived on Earth as far back as 420 million years ago. Photo: Plos.org.

A 20-cm-long fossil fragment of the fish Sparalepis tingi, found in Yunnan province, China, is attracting the attention of paleontologists. Named after the Sparabara infantry force of the Persian Empire,fish speciesThe scales resembled the shields that warriors carried into battle, according toRT.

For decades, this fossil convinced the scientific community that populations of fish with jaws and spines appeared globally during the Devonian period (419.2 million to 358.9 million years ago).

A study published on March 8 in the journal PLOS.One by a team of experts from Flinders University, Australia, and the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology, China, shows that the explosion of jawed and bony fish species actually began tens of millions of years earlier than previously thought.

The Sparalepis fossil demonstrates that the fish population may have exploded during the Silurian period (443.7 to 419.2 million years ago). The fossil's location is also significant, prompting paleontologists to focus more on eastern China. The fossil also points to the early diversification of fish on Earth, filling a missing morphological link that scientists had been trying to complete for years.

According to VNE