Geneva researchers discover extinct fish species
Published: Tuesday, Nov 12th 2024, 18:30
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A team of scientists in Geneva has discovered an extinct species of coelacanth using a particle accelerator. The newly discovered species was named after a mythical dragon from French folklore.
Only two species of coelacanths are known. These are found off the coasts of East Africa and Indonesia. A team from the Natural History Museum of Geneva (MHNG) and the University of Geneva (UNIGE) has now succeeded in identifying another fossil species.
This discovery was made possible by the use of the European Synchrotron in Grenoble (F), a particle accelerator for analyzing matter, according to a joint statement issued by the two institutions on Tuesday. It shows that some of the 240-million-year-old fossils of coelacanths have preserved such fine details of their skeleton that had never been observed before the use of the synchrotron.
The fossils studied were discovered in clay nodules from the Middle Triassic, which originate from the Lorraine region in France. The light from the synchrotron makes it possible, among other things, to create images of the fossils preserved in the rock.
The team was able to reconstruct the skeleton of the fish. It is a new species called Graulia branchiodonta, named after the Graoully, a mythical dragon in Lorraine folklore, and after the large teeth that these fish have on their gills.
Scientists from the Senckenberg Research Institute and the Natural History Museum in Frankfurt am Main (Germany) also contributed to the study, which was published in the scientific journal "Plosone".
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