Ancient ‘demon-toothed’ fish with large fangs found in New Mexico. It’s a new species
A “demon-toothed” sea creature with “large, well-spaced fangs” has been identified as a new species after a researcher found a fossilized partial skull in the New Mexico desert, officials said.
The ancient fish lived about 305 million years ago during the Late Pennsylvanian period of the Paleozoic Era, the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs said in a Jan. 10 news release.
The partial skull was discovered in northern Socorro County, officials said.
Although New Mexico now is known for its desert landscapes, the state at one time was a tropical archipelago, according to officials.
A paper about the find was published in December in Contributions from the Museum of Paleontology, University of Michigan.
The ancient fish is called Daemodontiscus harrisae, named in part after Susan Harris, the New Mexico Museum of Natural History & Science research associate who found the partial skull, according to officials.
“Finding the fossil fish skull in a dry desert made the lost tropical world of the Paleozoic very real to me,” Harris said in the release.
The bony, ray-finned fish had “large, well-spaced fangs” and “horizontally directed teeth,” according to officials and the paper. Scientists estimate that it reached 3 to 4 feet in length.
Researchers used “micro-computed tomography in order to create a three-dimensional image of the skull” to help distinguish the fish “as a new genus and species,” according to officials.
Anthony Fiorillo, museum executive director, said the discovery “showcases the wide range of lifeforms” living in the state during the Paleozoic Era.
It also “paves the way for additional research on this little-known group of ray-finned fish that is broadly related to our modern bony fishes,” Fiorillo said in the release.
The partial skull will be displayed at the museum.
The research team behind the paper included Matt Friedman, Rodrigo Tinoco Figueroa, John-Paul M. Hodnett, Spencer G. Lucas, Robert R. Higgins, Stephanie Pierce and Sam Giles, officials said.
Socorro is about an 80-mile drive southwest from Albuquerque.
.JPG)