A team of paleontologists from the University of Zurich, in Switzerland, in collaboration with experts in primitive fauna from different Chinese and European institutions, has discovered in the Helvetian site of Monte San Giorgio two new species of Saurichthys , extinct prehistoric fish that lived in the Triassic period, between 250 and 200 million years ago .
These predators inhabited both the seas and freshwater currents around the world, and although they were not very different from modern pike, they had a very long jaw – their length was almost a third of that of the entire animal, measuring about a meter – provided with numerous sharp teeth.
However, these new species, called Saurichthys breviabdominalis and Saurichthys rieppeli , have certain distinctive characteristics. Not only are they smaller – 40 and 60 centimeters respectively – but their shapes and the structure of their skull also vary.
For the paleontologist Heinz Furrer, who has promoted the research, “these dissimilarities show that in the shallow seas of the time there were different habitats and very varied hunting techniques had already been developed, which facilitated the coexistence of many species”.
In his opinion, the ability of these animals to adapt to various ecological niches and to a specialized diet explains their evolutionary success .
With these two species, six of Saurichthys are already known, which makes these fish the most numerous and diverse found in the San Giorgio environment, very abundant in Triassic fossils.
