Scientists find a 380-million-year- old fossilised fish with abdominal muscles in remote Kimberley region
An international team of scientists has
found 380-million-year-old fossilised fish
with abdominal muscles, in the remote
Kimberley region.
The palaeontologists said it was rare for
the soft tissue in the placoderm fossils to
be so well preserved and it allowed them
to map the muscular structure of the fish.
Placoderms had a type of armour plating
and were often compared with sharks.
Flinders University palaeontologist John
Long said researchers had not previously
believed abdominal muscles would be
found in fish.
"We didn't expect these fish to have
abdominal muscles, they're the abs that
people have," he said.
"Sharks don't have them, nor do any
other living fish, but all living four-legged
animals do have them, such as reptiles,
mammals and birds.
"They were probably far better swimmers
and more able to control their trunk
musculature, which is their body
musculature, than we'd previously
thought."
The palaeontologists from Western
Australia, South Australia, France and
Sweden studied the fossils found in rocks
on the Gogo Formation.
