Science Fish diversity exploded when dinosaurs went extinct

tom_mai78101

The Helper Connoisseur / Ex-MineCraft Host
Staff member
Reaction score
1,602
The ray-finned fishes, so called because their fins are supported by bony spines or rays, make up more than 95% of all fish species. They come in all shapes and sizes, from the showy lionfish (pictured above) to the delicious Atlantic salmon. Yet paleontologists have been unsure when and why ray-finned fishes exploded into such prominence, in large part because the preservation of fish fossils is a very hit-or-miss affair.

Now, researchers have taken a new approach to the problem: They looked at marine sediments taken from deep-sea cores at six sites around the world, including the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. To figure out when ray-finned fish numbers took off, they calculated the ratio of fossilized teeth from ray-finned fishes to the fossilized scales from another major group of fish: sharks. As they report online this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, this ratio shows that sharks well outnumbered the ray-finned fish at the end of the Cretaceous, about 66 million years ago.

That was when dinosaurs, ammonites, and most marine reptiles went extinct, probably because of a large asteroid hitting Earth. After the extinction event, the ratio of these ray-finned fish remains shot up dramatically, quickly outnumbering those of sharks. Although the sharks also survived the end of the Cretaceous, their numbers appear to have remained flat, whereas the size and diversity of ray-finned fish populations took off.

The researchers suggest that the mass extinction, especially of ammonites (which probably competed with fish for food), allowed the ray-fins to exploit new ecological niches and launched what the authors call a “new age of fish.”

 
Last edited by a moderator:
General chit-chat
Help Users
  • No one is chatting at the moment.
  • Varine Varine:
    And our actual cooks aren't really trained for that. Our line lead will be fine but our tournant is still kind of struggling with some things and he takes mistakes way too hard. I got onto him about scorching pans when making cream sauces and he started fucking everything else up, like dude it's fine just turn your heat down a bit. And then he burned like three batches of couscous in a row and it's like man
  • Varine Varine:
    He walked away from the first batch, learned nothing and walked away from the second batch, and then tried to toast it in a saute pan made out of aluminum so it scorched immediately and then I took away and he was sad all day
    +1
  • Varine Varine:
    I know our range sucks but it's still a fucking fire down there, I've never measured it but I'm sure it's like a couple thousand degrees.
    +1
  • The Helper The Helper:
    I wish I had a flat top grill in my kitchen!
  • jonas jonas:
    I wish I could cook asian dishes :D
  • The Helper The Helper:
    You just need a pressure cooker like an instapot for the asian dishes
  • The Helper The Helper:
    they make that stuff easy
  • The Helper The Helper:
    and there is a flat top grill I can buy that will work on my stovetop but it is pricey
  • The Helper The Helper:
    and I have no room for that anyway
  • Varine Varine:
    I have a thing that goes over two burners for my house, but it doesn't work great. I think they make ones that plug in where the coils go but it's not cheap.
  • Varine Varine:
    And yeah if you have a pressure cooker you can do lots of stuff really fast. Depending on what you're trying to do it ranges from really easy to really hard
  • Varine Varine:
    If you want to make tonkotsu broth, you're gonna have a rough time, but if you want to do like stir fries or something that tends to be pretty easy
    +1
  • Varine Varine:
    Ingredients are sometimes hard to find though, which is why we're doing 'fusion'. We don't have wok burners either, so it'll be kind of a weird transition
    +1
  • The Helper The Helper:
    Added another slow cooker recipe - this time a dessert - Slow Cooker Fried Apples https://www.thehelper.net/threads/recipe-slow-cooker-cracker-barrel-fried-apples.192860/
  • Varine Varine:
    I have three teenagers apply for college that all asked for letters of recommendation with like two days notice lol. Like I get it guys, and I'm happy to help, but maybe tell me you need it before you need to turn these applications in?
  • Varine Varine:
    I guess they are literal children, so not exactly the best at thinking ahead. Fucking kids
  • The Helper The Helper:
    Yeah they are just inexperienced and young
  • jonas jonas:
    I'm still horrible at that :eek: often forget things or do things on the last minute
  • The Helper The Helper:
    My daughter is same way
  • The Helper The Helper:
    Happy Saturday people!!!
  • The Helper The Helper:
    I am sure nobody cares but I am seriously considering taking the Gaming News forum and just changing it to General Gaming Discussion since I post so much about gaming in the General Discussion Forum
  • The Helper The Helper:
    guests online 487 at 12:30 and none of them show up on the stats - all bots man
  • The Helper The Helper:
    Latest recipe is a great one - I love Philly Cheese and this is Philly Cheese Meatloaf https://www.thehelper.net/threads/recipe-philly-cheese-meatloaf.192935/
  • Ghan Ghan:
    Beep boop
    +2

      The Helper Discord

      Staff online

      Members online

      Affiliates

      Hive Workshop NUON Dome World Editor Tutorials

      Network Sponsors

      Apex Steel Pipe - Buys and sells Steel Pipe.
      Top