Hongyu: New Oddball Lobe-finned Fish

[ZoPteryx]

Hongyu chowi: A new lobe-finned fish from the Late Devonian of China that exhibits surprising similarities to the "basal" lobe-finned fishes known as rhizodonts, such as the giant Rhizodus, and features of tetrapod-like fishes, such as Tiktaalik.  This may indicate a closer relationship between fish close to tetrapods and rhizodonts than traditionally thought, or Hongyu may have convergently evolved to be similar to one or the other.

Paper (paywalled):
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-017-0293-5

Article:
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2146256-weird-fish-fossil-changes-the-story-of-how-we-moved-onto-land/

[Faelrin]

Are those its gills in the fossil I'm seeing? I mean aside from the spine, it looks a mess, so hard for me to tell.

I think that's an interesting discovery though (of course anything relating to fish-tetrapod evolution is interesting to me). Also what are the little fish it is eating? I think I know what they are, but can't remember the name of them.

[Halichoeres]

Are those its gills in the fossil I'm seeing? I mean aside from the spine, it looks a mess, so hard for me to tell.

I think that's an interesting discovery though (of course anything relating to fish-tetrapod evolution is interesting to me). Also what are the little fish it is eating? I think I know what they are, but can't remember the name of them.

Annoyingly, the institutional subscription that my university has to Nature E&E embargoes online pdfs for several months, so I can't currently access the paper. But I think you're right that you're seeing the back of the neurocranium and the branchial arches (gills). The smaller fishes look like Ningxialepis to me, but I could be wrong. I think Ningxialepis is from slightly older strata than Hongyu (http://www.ivpp.ac.cn/qt/recommended_papers/201009/P020100901399014182987.pdf), but the resemblance is pretty strong.

[BlueKrono]

They kinda reminded me of Groenlandaspis, but Halichoeres has a much wider knowledge base of prehistoric fish than I do, so I would trust his ID. And which country was it again? Oh yeah... >.>

[Halichoeres]

They kinda reminded me of Groenlandaspis, but Halichoeres has a much wider knowledge base of prehistoric fish than I do, so I would trust his ID. And which country was it again? Oh yeah... >.>

Actually, that was my first thought too! The giveaway was the jointed, armored pectoral fins that look like crab claws. Groenlandaspis had soft fins behind an immobile lateral spike. Groenlandaspis also had its eyes at the side of the head. The little window at the front with two tiny eyes is another antiarch trait.

So I just searched Google Images for Ningxialepis and this Brian Choo painting is one of the results. The preview includes a fragment of the paywalled caption: "Hongyu chowi gen. et sp. nov. and associated antiarchs (Ningxialepis spinosa) from the Zhongning Formation (Famennian, Late Devonian period), Ningxia..."

Confirmation!

[Halichoeres]

I was able to access this version, hopefully others can too:

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-017-0293-5.epdf?shared_access_token=A6a3YPRnSUNppVsQpWJQ9tRgN0jAjWel9jnR3ZoTv0MpXMdVcImN_Nu3ztghlsvk69BQlRA62Tp4YA1BF18oeKh71UmzQkTcJF_md4mMQwIUuMIy_YL_Pu_mvp4GZrrTuvxoyE4BtLGjQ1E4AOtBye6TwJAkLuwkE7Z9l34cgps%3D