Joel Kontinen
This article is full of evolution and millions of years .
When dinosaurs and other large predators went extinct some 66 million years ago, lots of creatures evolved to take their place. But unlike the plankton-hunting anchovies we eat in Caesar salads today, some ancient anchovies evolved into fish-eating predators, according to a new study.
Researchers examined a 30-centimeter-long fossil embedded in a rock formation near Chièvres, Belgium, and another partial fossil from Pakistan’s Punjab province. They were between 41 million and 54 million years old, and both shared a peculiar feature: a single saber tooth on the upper jaw.
The researchers think that it hailed from a small fish, called a Monosmilus chureloides.
While sea bird look the same as today, the researchers write in Royal Society Open Science that these anchovies also loved to eat fish.
Source:
Ortega, Rodrigo Pérez. 2020. Saber-toothed anchovies roamed the oceans 45 million years ago. Science 12 May.
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