The 50-million-year-old Pegasus volans isn't closely related to seamoths or oarfish, like some researchers have suggested. But what is it?
It wasn’t an ancient boomerang. It was, in fact, a fish — albeit unlike any known today. Beyond that, nobody’s quite sure what to make ofThe fish’s ribbonlike body, known from two fossils from a 50-million-year-old site in northern Italy, has thwarted efforts to pinpoint the animal’s place on the tree of life for more than two centuries. In a new analysis posted August 23 on bioRxiv.
But the fossil fish themselves don’t appear to be larvae, the researchers say, due to their relatively large bodies and fully ossified skeletons. Still, the fossils could represent an early appearance of these larval traits, perhaps as part of the explosion of spiny-rayed fish diversity after the Cretaceous-Paleogene mass extinction roughly 66 million years ago, Davesne says.
He cautions that confirming any relationship would require more information — like the tail end of the fish, which is missing from both fossils. “One day, someone will find another specimen that is even better preserved,” Davesne says. “That would be neat!” With its family ties unclear, the duo says, the fish needs a new genus name. Following Carnevale’s naming habit, Davesne has chosen a moniker in honor of a late musician he knew personally. It will be revealed once the paper is formally published.
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