Saurichthys fish fossil found in Wales resolves teeth confusion

Researchers from Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales worked with State Museum of Natural History Stuttgart and the University of Bristol, where the fossil had been sent for detailed inspection.

They discovered it belonged to a Saurichthys – a predator fish that lived in shallow tropical seas during the Late Triassic period.

“Many teeth from Saurichthys were once mistaken for those of an amphibian, and that misunderstanding continued well into the 20th Century,” said Museum Wales curator Cindy Howells.

“This lovely little jaw caused great confusion when it was first found as it bore no resemblance to any known species,” she said.

Quinn said the fossils found in the Bristol Channel had come from storms that had happened 200 million years ago.

“It is remarkable that such a delicate fossil survived,” she said.

“Although British Triassic fossils have been studied for over 200 years, this is the first bone from Saurichthys ever found in these rocks.”

The discovery led to the publication of a scientific paper, external that compared the fossil with those across Europe.

By comparing the new snout with museum specimens from Britain and Europe, it provided clear evidence that fossils originally thought to be Severnichthys were actually a combination of two separate species.

The name Severnichthys had been used for individual teeth and a few small bones that existed in many museum collections. These were even thought to be from amphibians well into the 20th Century, rather than the fish that experts now know they were.

“These predators lived in a shallow tropical sea filled with small limestone islands,” paper co-author Dr David Whiteside said of the two species.

“Saurichthys was probably a fast and agile hunter, while Birgeria was larger and more powerful, likely feeding on a wider variety of prey.”

Another co-author, Dr Sam Cooper, said: “These fish have a remarkably complicated history.

“It’s amazing that a single fossil, found by Jonathan Bow during a spring tide, has helped clear up nearly 200 years of confusion.”