Extinct anchovy kin were armed to the teeth

摘要

Less pizza topping and more toothy hunter, ancient anchovy relatives had quite the bite. Fossils show that these fish had a mouthful of fearsome teeth. Two newly analyzed specimens sport spiky teeth along the lower jaw and one giant dagger jutting down from the top jaw, scientists report in the May Royal Society Open Science. Such chompers suggest that the now-extinct fish possibly fed on other fish. Today's anchovies feast mostly on plankton. "They have super tiny teeth. They look nothing like these things," says paleontologist Alessio Capobianco of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.