Anchovy. You know them Real Pool Pipsqueaks. People put them on pizza.
However, before being a polarizing flavor bomb, anchovies were a terror to the seas. As the fossil record reveals, millions of years ago, anchovies up to a meter long (3.3 feet) chased the oceans with creaky tusks and a single long, curved, incisor shaped saber in their upper jaws.
The fossils of two different species of predatory fish from the Eocene 55 million years ago were identified as closely related to modern anchovies, which feed on fodder rather than actively hunt their prey.
It is certainly a special relationship, but the appearance of these two long-extinct species, paleontologists believe, may be linked to the Cretaceous-Paleogenic extinction event that wiped out the non-avian dinosaurs 66 million years ago.
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The two fossils were found near Belgium and Pakistan. The first, called Clupeopsis straeleni, he was first described in 1946, and reached just under half a meter long. The latter was recently excavated in 1977, but was hidden in a museum collection.
Clupeopsis straeleni. (Capobianco et al., RSOS, 2020)
It was only when the team did a more detailed study that it realized that it was a previously unknown species. It was about a meter long and its evil fangs inspired its new name: Monosmilus chureloides, after Churel, the Urdu word for a vampire demon with big fangs that changes shape.
Although the two ancient fish differ in size and in several minor physical characteristics, they were remarkably similar, in particular due to this unique giant tooth.
The team, led by paleontologists from the University of Michigan, made careful comparisons between the two and several modern fish, and determined that the fossil finds belonged to an unknown group until then unknown . clupeiform Fish This is the order of fin fish which includes herring and anchovies. And they could even be a mother engraulidae – The anchovy family.
But most of the clupeiformes, including the anchovies, are planctivores. They have no vicious teeth or jaws found in C. straeleni and M. chureloides. These indicate a predatory hunting style, with the only large tooth possibly used to impale or catch its fish prey.
What does this mean? Well, after the extinction of the Cretaceous-Paleogene, many ecological niches have remained empty. The remaining life experienced a boom of diversification, including a massive expansion of the ray-finned fish.
During the Cretaceous period, the remains of sharks dominate the fossil record of fish. At the beginning of the Paleogene, radiated fin fish stood out.
But it would also have been a very competitive period; Not all species have succeeded. Exactly how and why C. straeleni and M. chureloides then it disappeared, it is impossible to say, but it is likely that they were overtaken by rival predators.
It just goes to show that survival of the fittest does not always mean the most aggressive with the scariest teeth.
It turns out that his pizza topping had the best survival strategy of all time.
The research was published in Royal Society Open Science.