Excavating fish fossils 429 million years old

The 429 million year old fossil fish in China may be the earliest creature with a recognizable face, thanks to the modern jaw frame.

The unearthed fossil in China belongs to the class of catfish , a member of an extinct group, but its function is like bone fish today.

Fish 429 million years old has a function like modern fish - (Photo: Nature)

The discovery of this fish could provide a new perspective on their ancestors' early evolution, according to a report published in Nature.

Evolution of the jaw is one of the most important periods of vertebrate development, but the distance between vertebrate animals with jaws and no jaws is too wide, so it is difficult to distinguish single evolutionary steps in the period. transition section of this species.

Min Zhu of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing and colleagues discovered a step near the end of this transition process, when animals with modern jaw bones, such as sharks and fish bones, emerged from a group of catfish species.

The new finding provides an important evidence of an evolutionary link between the fish skinfish and bone fish, which can reprogram and long-known processes of fish evolution.