{"id":266295,"date":"2026-02-04T00:07:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T00:07:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/266295\/"},"modified":"2026-02-04T00:07:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T00:07:10","slug":"enigmatic-fossils-fill-missing-chapters-in-story-of-earths-first-fishes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/266295\/","title":{"rendered":"Enigmatic Fossils Fill Missing Chapters in Story of Earth\u2019s First Fishes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In two separate studies, paleontologists in Australia and China examined the fossilized remains of enigmatic Devonian lungfish with cutting-edge imaging, revealing overlooked anatomical details and deepening our understanding of early vertebrate evolution. Their results appear in the Canadian Journal of Zoology and the journal Current Biology.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cdn.sci.news\/images\/enlarge13\/image_14531e-Paleolophus-yunnanensis.jpg\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-108339\" class=\"wp-image-108339 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image_14531-Paleolophus-yunnanensis.jpg\" alt=\"Paleolophus yunnanensis, a species of lungfish that swam in the South Chinese seas 410 million years ago. Image credit: Brian Choo, Flinders University.\" width=\"580\" height=\"404\"  \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-108339\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Paleolophus yunnanensis, a species of lungfish that swam in the South Chinese seas 410 million years ago. Image credit: Brian Choo, Flinders University.<\/p>\n<p>In the <a href=\"https:\/\/cdnsciencepub.com\/doi\/10.1139\/cjz-2025-0109\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">first study<\/a>, Flinders University paleontologist Alice Clement and colleagues focused on <a href=\"http:\/\/hdl.handle.net\/1885\/52816\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Cainocara enigma<\/a>, an enigmatic fossil known from a single specimen from the Late Devonian Gogo Formation in Western Australia.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe new research is slowly adding to the story of the key Australian fossil site\u2019s rich diversity of lungfishes, including re-examining poorly preserved specimens,\u201d Dr. Clement said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOne such damaged specimen has yielded valuable new clues. It comes from Australia\u2019s first \u2018Great Barrier Reef,\u2019 the Devonian-age reef in the Kimberley region of northern Western Australia.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe unusual specimen was so enigmatic, the authors who first described it in 2010 considered it could be a whole new type of fish never before seen in science.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUsing high-tech scanning, this time we were able to create comprehensive new digital images of the external and internal cranium, showcasing the complexity of the brain cavity of this fascinating lungfish.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn fact, we were also able to confirm that previous impressions were probably viewed upside down and back to front.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe were able to compare its most preserved inner ear area with other Gogo lungfish,\u201d said Flinders University paleontologist Hannah Thiele.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is an extra data point in the amazing collection of lungfish and early vertebrate species.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt adds to the wider understanding of the evolution of these earliest lobe-finned fishes, both in Gondwana and across the world.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencedirect.com\/science\/article\/abs\/pii\/S0960982225015398\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">second study<\/a>, Flinders University paleontologist Brian Choo and colleagues described a new species of lungfish from the Devonian of China: Paleolophus yunnanensis.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPaleolophus yunnanensis gives us an unprecedented look at a lungfish from a time between their earliest appearance and their great diversification a few million years later,\u201d Dr. Choo said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was a time when the group was just starting to develop the distinctive feeding adaptations that would serve them for the remainder of the Devonian and onwards to the present day.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLungfish are an incredibly ancient lineage, including the still living Australian lungfish from Queensland, that have long fascinated researchers due to their close relationship to the tetrapods, or backboned animals with limbs, including humans.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe exceptional lungfish skull unearthed in 410 million-year-old rocks in Yunnan gives us major insights into the rapid evolutionary diversification between the Early-, Middle- and Late Devonian.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe new specimen had similar and divergent features compared to the earliest and most primitive Diabolepis fossil in southern China, and species such as Uranolophus from Wyoming in the United States and other forms like Australia\u2019s Dipnorhynchus.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>_____<\/p>\n<p>Hannah S. Thiele et al. Deciphering Cainocara enigma from the Late Devonian Gogo Formation, Australia. Canadian Journal of Zoology, published online January 28, 2026; doi: 10.1139\/cjz-2025-0109<\/p>\n<p>Tuo Qiao et al. 2026. A new fossil fish sheds light on the rapid evolution of early lungfishes. Current Biology 36 (1): 243-251; doi: 10.1016\/j.cub.2025.11.032<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In two separate studies, paleontologists in Australia and China examined the fossilized remains of enigmatic Devonian lungfish with&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":266296,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[85,151750,151751,607,151752,6567,8321,25078,151753,151754,111,139,69,151755,151756,147,95241],"class_list":{"0":"post-266295","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-australia","9":"tag-cainocara","10":"tag-cainocara-enigma","11":"tag-china","12":"tag-devonian","13":"tag-evolution","14":"tag-fish","15":"tag-fossil","16":"tag-gogo-formation","17":"tag-lungfish","18":"tag-new-zealand","19":"tag-newzealand","20":"tag-nz","21":"tag-paleolophus","22":"tag-paleolophus-yunnanensis","23":"tag-science","24":"tag-yunnan"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266295","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=266295"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266295\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/266296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=266295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=266295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=266295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}