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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
 Posted - 03/11/2009 : 19:49:45
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Hat tip to PZ Myers for this. The Danionella dracula is a carp-like fish, which is apparently unique for growing toothlike bones that erupt from its jaws and serve like teeth.
Yes, the fish is named for Count Dracula.
According to The Telegraph:A spectacular new "dracula" fish has been discovered, the only species of carp-like fishes to have "teeth".
By Kate Devlin
Last Updated: 8:46AM GMT 11 Mar 2009
Dracula fish: New 'dracula' fish discovered
Zoologists say that the bones which hang down from the mouth of the miniature fish make it unique among the 3,700 known species of carp-like fishes, which lost their jaw teeth 50 million years ago.
The fish, which measures just over 16 millimetres in length, was discovered near Mogaung in Burma, the only place in the world it has been found.
Scientists have described its features as "extraordinary" and believe it is one of the most interesting vertebrates to be identified in recent decades |
This is a bigger deal that it might appear on the surface, because toothed fish evolved their dentition from scales, not from bones. Carp lost their teeth long ago, but his one fish has evolved an alternative way to enhance its smile.
National Geographic also has a brief article.
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
Edited by - HalfMooner on 03/11/2009 19:50:11
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 03/12/2009 : 03:03:22 [Permalink]
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The first thing I thought after reading the article was: "Wow, an aquarium-sized version of this!"
The two are scarcly related, of course, but it's very interesting to note that the ancient Placoderms were not the only ones that evolution got and continues to get weird with.
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist! 
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 03/12/2009 : 03:53:15 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by filthy
The first thing I thought after reading the article was: "Wow, an aquarium-sized version of this!"
The two are scarcly related, of course, but it's very interesting to note that the ancient Placoderms were not the only ones that evolution got and continues to get weird with.
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I wouldn't want to go swimming where Dunkleosteus prowled. That is one nasty beak it has. BTW, Fil, do you know if those "gnathal plates" that make up the Dunk's beak are made up of scale tissue, or of bone?
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 03/12/2009 : 04:01:59 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by HalfMooner
Originally posted by filthy
The first thing I thought after reading the article was: "Wow, an aquarium-sized version of this!"
The two are scarcly related, of course, but it's very interesting to note that the ancient Placoderms were not the only ones that evolution got and continues to get weird with.
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I wouldn't want to go swimming where Dunkleosteus prowled. That is one nasty beak it has. BTW, Fil, do you know if those "gnathal plates" that make up the Dunk's beak are made up of scale tissue, or of bone?
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Solid bone, ever sharpening by it's jaws rubbing against each other and growing constantly. This is, arguably, among the most ferocious predators ever with a bite pressure to rival T. rex. It could chop chunks out of any shark of any size with ease. Neat!
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist!
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 03/12/2009 : 04:05:48 [Permalink]
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I'd call the fellow a bonehead, but only from a safe distance from the water.
So it seems that the use of bone instead of scales adapted as teeth has evolved more than once.
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
| Edited by - HalfMooner on 03/12/2009 04:13:17 |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
 Posted - 03/12/2009 : 04:21:35 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by HalfMooner
I'd call the fellow a bonehead, but only from a safe distance from the water.
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Indeed, indeed. But I'd trade a testicle to actually see one alive.
I have seen the Dunkleosteous fossil display at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. This animal was impressive beyond my poor powers of description. It's only natural enemy was another Dunk and not necessarily a larger one. Fossils have been found with bite scars that could have been caused by nothing else.
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist!
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Simon
SFN Regular
USA
1992 Posts |
Posted - 03/12/2009 : 07:32:22 [Permalink]
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| Yep; that's mighty cool! |
Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.
Carl Sagan - 1996 |
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Toothless carp evolves use of bones for teeth
