Tongue-bite apparatus highlights functional innovation in a 310-million-year-old ray-finned fish
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Gill skeleton modifications for processing prey represent a major source of functional innovation in living ray-finned fishes. Here we present the oldest actinopterygian tongue bite, derived from the gill skeleton, in the Early Pennsylvanian (∼310 Ma) † Platysomus parvulus . Unrelated to extant tongue biters, this deep-bodied taxon possesses a large, multipartite basibranchial tooth plate opposing an upper tooth field centered on the vomer. This branchial structure occurs in conjunction with toothed jaws, indicating a role for both in feeding. † P. parvulus illustrates the assembly of the tongue bite in the geologically younger †Bobasatraniidae: large opposing dorsal (vomerine) and ventral (basibranchial) crushing plates associated with toothless jaws. The origin of tongue bites falls within the Carboniferous actinopterygian radiation, although postdates the first signs of durophagy in other ray-finned lineages by several million years. This lends support to a protracted ‘long-fuse’ model of actinopterygian diversification in the aftermath of the End-Devonian Mass Extinction.
Source: Biology Letters
Authors: Sam Giles, Matthew Kolmann, Matt Friedman
Language: English
Subfield: Paleontology
Field: Earth and Planetary Sciences
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Awards: Collaborative Research: Phenotypic and lineage diversification after key innovation(s): multiple evolutionary pathways to air-breathing in labyrinth fishes and their allies, Collaborative Research: Phenotypic and lineage diversification after key innovation(s): multiple evolutionary pathways to air-breathing in labyrinth fishes and their allies, NSFGEO-NERC: Collaborative Research: The first actinopterygian ‘adaptive radiation’: integrating fossils, function and phylogeny to illuminate innovation in a post-extinction world
OpenAlex ID: W4413960066