Fanged fossil specimen draw in a paper published in the journalRoyal Society Open Sciencehave revealed the unusual anatomy of “ saber - toothed anchovy ” , painting a far spikier picture of what modern - day pizza toppings could have been like had the adaptation emerged across the ray - fin Pisces . The paper reports the breakthrough of penny-pinching , predatory cousins of the innovative anchovy , which were much bigger and packed an impressive bent of tooth . Most bizarrely , the fish romp fang on the lower jaw with a single upper “ saber-toothed tiger ” , spotlight how dramatically anchovy and their cousins diverged in the backwash of theend - Cretaceous quenching .
When mass extinction events happen , the loss of life sees a wealth of ecologic niche mature for the pickings , and surviving mintage will often conform and alter to occupy them , driving a sudden rush in anatomical transmutation . The remainder - Cretaceous extinction was no unlike , and the authors of this composition conceive they have stumble across one such opportunist mathematical group of fish who reinvent themselves at this time . They report on two fossils from the Clupeiform genus , ClupeopsisandMonosmilusfound in Belgium and Pakistan respectively , which adapted to be large in sizing with low jaw fangs and a single upper saber-toothed tiger . The finding is even more strange in the context that these specimens are confining cousin to the plankton - feeding , tin - can - dwellinganchovies we fuck today . Far well know for their affinity as a pizza pie top than their aggressiveness , the investigator foreground the extraordinary evolutionary changes that take position to enable this genealogically stuffy relative to anatomically transmute from its anchovy cousin so dramatically .
The adaptation is an example of singular trophic innovation in early Palaeogene Clupeiformes , a group whose modern - twenty-four hours example are broadly speaking small - incarnate plankton feeders . The team discovered specimen of two out members of the group , one from the former Eocene and a new genus from the middle Eocene , which have features suggestive of predatory beast , including great size , long gape , and more tooth .
The research worker used micro - computed tomography to divulge the physical body of the two Clupeiform specimen . Their discovery paint an unexpected picture of how marine Clupeiform look and behaved in the other Palaeogene . The specimen also be a previously unrecognized trophic innovation for Clupeiformes , which , for good or worse , has not persisted to innovative day . in person , I think myPizza Napolicould do without .
