Discover the oldest flying fish in the world in China

Paleontologists in China said they discovered the oldest flying fish in the world. This is a strange creature that has hovered above the water about 240 million years ago to avoid predators.

In an article published on October 31 in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, paleontologists say that the study showed that this flying fish named Potanichthys xingyiensis lived in the mid-235s. 242 million years ago and 27 million years earlier than the oldest known flying fish found in Europe.

Fish fossil Potanichthys xingyiensis

Researcher Guang-Hui Xu of the Chinese Institute of Vertebrate Archeology told AFP that the flying fish Potanichthys xingyiensis was "the earliest evidence of flying on water in bone animals." living".

This species flew over the water 80 million years before the bird appeared. Scientists believe that flying fish evolved from the need to evade predators of predators.

The newly named flying fish is only 15cm long, has four wings, two large pectoral fins and a large chi-shaped tail fin that can be used to help it break out of the water.

According to Xu, this is the first flying fish ever found in Asia during the supercontinent Pangea began to split into continents that we know today.

The only other flying fish ever known in Triassic was discovered in the border region between Austria and Italy.