Piranhas and Piranhamesodons
During the late Jurassic, some 150 million years ago, a very piranha-like fish terrorized the seas in what is now southern Germany. Called Piranhamesodon pinnatomus, it’s the oldest known flesh-eating ray-finned bony fish, a family that now includes trout, grouper, and cod, but not modern piranhas.
Piranhamesodon featured distinctly piranha-like teeth, which it used to bite chunks of flesh from other fish—especially from their fins. Paleontologist David Bellwood from James Cook University said it’s “an amazing parallel with modern piranhas, which feed predominantly not on flesh but the fins of other fishes,” to which he added: “It’s a remarkably smart move as fins regrow, a neat renewable resource. Feed on a fish and it is dead; nibble its fins and you have food for the future.”
