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The bite of Acherontiscus

Started by Logo7, June 07, 2019, 03:06:40 AM

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Logo7

A new study by researchers from the University Museum of Zoology in Cambridge, the University of Lincoln, the Natural History Museum in London, and the University of Southhampton looked at the teeth in the jaw of a Acherontiscus skull from Scotland. The study determined that that the tetrapod possessed a unique combination of different tooth shapes and sizes as well as a deep lower jaw, suggesting that it had a diet consisting of hard-shelled crustaceans that it could pierce, cut, and grind using these features. This suggests that Acherontiscus is one of the earliest known tetrapods to develop crushing teeth. Here is a drawing of the skull used in this study and a link to the paper describing this study.



Paper (open access!): https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.182087