420 million-year-old armored fossil in China

Chinese scientists discovered a rare fossil piece of "armored" fish, dating up to 420 million years.

Part of the fossil of the 20 cm long Sparalepis tingi fish found in China's Yunnan Province, is attracting the attention of paleontologists. Named after the Sparabara infantry force of the Persian Empire, the fish had scales similar to the shields the soldiers took to the battlefield, according to RT.

"Armored" fish can thrive on Earth 420 million years ago.(Photo: Plos.org).

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

The study was published on March 8 in the journal PLOS.One by experts at Flinders University, Australia and the Institute of Paleontology in Vertebrate Animals, China, showing the explosion of jaw fish. and the spine actually started tens of millions of years earlier than previously thought.

The Sparalepis fossil proves the explosion of fish can occur from the Silurian period (from 443.7 to 419.2 million years ago). The position to find fossils is also important, urging paleontologists to focus more on eastern China. Fossils also show the early differentiation of fish on Earth, while filling the missing morphological link that scientists have tried to perfect for years.