Armored fish that roamed seas 360 million years ago unearthed

By Mark Waghorn via SWNS

An armored fish that roamed the seas 360 million years ago has been unearthed in South Africa.

Predatory Hyneria Udlezinye had razor-sharp teeth and grew to more than eight feet long, say scientists.

It belonged to a diverse group known as tristochoterids - relatives of tetrapods, the first four-limbed animals on land.

The creature was identified from fossilized bones dug up on a farm near Grahamstown.

The discovery fills an important gap in the evolution of life on Earth.

Lead author Dr. Robert Gess, of Rhodes University in South Africa, said: "We describe the largest bony fish in the Late Devonian fossil assemblage.

"It is a giant member of the extinct clade tristichopteridae.

"The preserved material comprises most of the dermal skull, lower jaw, gill cover and shoulder girdle.

The creature's name translates from the widely spoken indigenous language of South Eastern South Africa where it was found.

Dr. Gess said Hyneria had a probable maximum length of nearly three meters.

He said: "This genus is otherwise only recorded from the late Famennian Catskill Formation of Pennsylvania.

"The new species, Hyneria udlezinye, differs from the type species Hyneria lindae in a number of minor but securely attested proportional characters relating to the skull roof, cheek, lower jaw and operculum."

At the time, South Africa formed part of the southern supercontinent Gondwana. Hyneria lived about 120 million years before the dawn of the age of the dinosaurs.

Dr. Gess said: "The other confirmed members of this clade are exclusively known from Gondwana.

"This strongly supports the contention that this clade represents a Gondwanan radiation."

Tristichopterids were a diverse and successful group of tetrapod fishes living throughout the Middle and Late Devonian.

They share some of the features of the elpistostegalians, fishes that included tetrapods.

This mainly concerns the shape of the skull and a reduction in the size of the posterior fins.

All tristichopterids had become extinct by the end of the Late Devonian. Hyneria is described in PLOS ONE.