Piranha-like fish menaced Jurassic seas

A new piranha-like fish fossil from Jurassic seas with sharp, pointed teeth has been discovered in southern Germany, scientists say. M Ebert and T Nohl REUTERS

You can call it a prehistoric prequel. Scientists have unearthed the fossil of a fish that, with its mouth full of razor-sharp teeth, resembled piranhas, the stars of Hollywood horror films. But this one lived in the Jurassic Period 152 million years ago.

Named Piranhamesodon pinnatomus, it is the earliest known example of a bony fish - as opposed to cartilaginous fish like sharks - able to slice flesh rather than swallow prey, enabling it to attack victims larger than itself.

Piranhamesodon, about 9cm long, lived in the sponge and coral reefs of the Solnhofen archipelago, a shallow tropical sea in what is now Bavaria. Piranhas are freshwater fish in rivers and lakes in South America.

Piranhamesodon was small. It had long, pointed and dagger-like teeth along the outer edge of its upper jaw and at the front of its lower jaw. It had triangular teeth with serrated cutting edges on the side of its lower jaw.

“We were stunned that this fish had teeth capable of slicing flesh. It comes from a group of fishes, the pycnodontids famous for their crushing teeth,” said paleontologist Martina Kölbl-Ebert of the Jura-Museum Eichstätt in Germany, who led the research published in the journal Current Biology.

“It is like finding a sheep with a snarl like a wolf,” Kölbl-Ebert added.

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