7 March 2013

ANU researchers discover new fish

| Barcham
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ANU has just announced a new species of fish after the discovery of a massive fish skull, pictured above. Yes that is a crocodile skull next to it. Awesome.

Dr Gavin Young from the Research School of Earth Sciences and his research team were excavating the skeleton of an extinct armoured fish from 360 million-year-old rock near Eden, NSW, when the bones they uncovered suggested there was more in the site than met the eye.

“As we lifted out the block, we noticed a very large fang, at least 4 cm long,” said Dr Young. “Armoured fish don’t have teeth, so we knew there must be a much larger predator also preserved at the site.

“We uncovered an almost complete skull and shoulder girdle of an enormous lobe-finned fish, with jaws about 48 cm long.”

360 millions years old. This fish is ancient. This is the kind of fish that religious dinosaurs would have been trying to deny the existence of.

Johnboy is so excited he’s been singing this:

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300 million years older than dinosaurs.

And what’s Lambeck got to do with it Diggety?

If they haven’t named it yet, I suggest “Crackhead Carp”.

LSWCHP said :

Whoa! I’ve been fishing since I could walk, and that’s what I call a fish. I’d say if you were a dinosaur floating around in a tinny and hooked that bad boy, it’d be 50-50 as to who ended up having who for dinner.

Or Devonian tea.

Whoa! I’ve been fishing since I could walk, and that’s what I call a fish. I’d say if you were a dinosaur floating around in a tinny and hooked that bad boy, it’d be 50-50 as to who ended up having who for dinner.

And as for Barcham’s line about religious dinosaurs…you’ll get a gold star from me and a trip to hell from the fundies for that one. Keep up the good work. 🙂

Call that a fish? You should have seen the one I almost discovered last weekend down at the coast.

Well done!

P.S. I think Professor Kurt Lambeck would be worth a shout out too!

Well it’s hardly a “new” fish, now, is it?

Previously unknown is pretty new!

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