What is it about?
Extremely rare fossils reveal the earliest evidence of deep-sea fishes, pushing back the invasion of the abyssal plain by 80 million years. The fish fossils have been recovered in the NW Apennines, close to Piacenza, Modena, and Livorno (Italy). The new fossils are identical to structures produced by modern fishes that feed by either scratching the seafloor or exposing their bottom-dwelling prey by suction. Thousands of meters below the surface of the Tethys Ocean, the earliest deep-sea fishes faced extreme environmental conditions relative to their shallow water origins: Total darkness, near-freezing temperatures, and colossal pressures challenged the survival of these pioneers of the abyss. The newly discovered fossils represent not just the earliest deep-sea fishes but the earliest deep-sea vertebrates.
Featured Image
Photo by Worachat Sodsri on Unsplash
Why is it important?
The newly discovered fossils are rare and unusual. They comprise bowl-shaped excavations produced by ancient feeding fishes, as well as the sinuous trail formed by the tail of a swimming fish, incising the muddy seafloor. These trace fossils do not comprise fish bones, but they record ancient behaviour. As such, the Apennine fossils mark a critical point in space and time. It is the point at which fishes moved out of the continental shelf and colonized a new harsh environment, located far away from their original habitat. The newly discovered fossils represent not just the earliest deep-sea fishes but the earliest deep-sea vertebrates. The evolution of vertebrates – backboned animals – has been punctuated by habitat transitions from shallow marine origins to terrestrial, aerial, and deep-sea environments. Invasion of the deep sea is the least-understood habitat transition because of the low fossilization potential associated with the deep sea. The new fossils shed light on an otherwise obscure chapter of the history of life on Earth. The newly discovered fossils may represent the first major step in the origins of modern deep-sea vertebrate biodiversity. Fishes such as the bathysaur and the tripod spiderfish are an important component of modern deep-sea ecosystems. The roots of modern deep-sea ecosystems are in the Apennine fossils, witnessing a key habitat transition in the history of the oceans. The new fossils reassess the mode and tempo of the vertebrate colonization of the deep sea. The newly discovered fossils contain fundamental clues about the very beginnings of vertebrate evolution in the deep sea, having profound implications for both Earth and Life Sciences.
Perspectives
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: The earliest evidence of deep-sea vertebrates, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, September 2023, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2306164120.
You can read the full text:
Resources
Contributors
The following have contributed to this page