Rosa Rubicondior: Refuting Creationism - How A Fish Was Equipped to Kill - 310 Million Years Before 'Death Entered the World'

Artist's impression of Platysomus parvulus

Image by Joschua Knüppe.

Fossil fish sheds new light on extra teeth evolution to devour prey - University of Birmingham

Palaeontologists led by Professor Sam Giles of Birmingham University, UK, have discovered the earliest known example of a ray-finned fish, Platysomus parvulus, with extra teeth deep inside its mouth. It lived around 310 million years before creationists believe Earth was created. Aside from that insurmountable problem for creationist mythology, there are other difficulties for their childish beliefs:

Creationists insist that death only “entered the world” as a result of “Eve’s sin”. Before that supposed event, some 6,000–10,000 years ago, nothing ever died. Taken literally, this would mean that every mouthful of food remained alive throughout the entire digestive process, only to be excreted still living at the other end. Alternatively, humans and animals didn’t eat at all, somehow running on an unidentified, miracle source of energy. Either way, the claim collapses into absurdity.

An additional disappointment for creationists is that this team of evolutionary biologists show no hint of the widely predicted (in creationists circles) abandonment of the Theory of Evolution in favour of creationism, that two generations of creationists have been told will happen, like the second coming of Jesus, "Any day now, real soon. You'll see!".

From an evolutionary biology perspective, this fossil sheds light on the diversification of ray-finned fish following the End-Devonian mass extinction and represents a transitional stage in the evolution of tongue-biters from simple jawed fish. It also shows that advanced forms evolved relatively quickly in ecosystems dominated by predator-prey relationships.

Background: The Evolution of Ray-Finned Fish. Ray-finned fish (Actinopterygii) are by far the most diverse group of vertebrates alive today, with over 30,000 living species — from tiny minnows to giant ocean sunfish. Their defining feature is a skeleton of bony fin rays, in contrast to the fleshy, lobed fins of their cousins, the lobe-finned fish (Sarcopterygii), from which tetrapods — including humans — later evolved.

The earliest ray-finned fish appeared in the Devonian Period, over 400 million years ago. After the End-Devonian mass extinction (\~359 Ma), which wiped out many early lineages, the surviving groups radiated rapidly into new ecological niches. Fossils like Platysomus parvulus show that complex adaptations — such as extra sets of teeth — were already emerging in the Carboniferous (~310 Ma).

Throughout the Carboniferous and Permian periods, ray-finned fish diversified in body shapes, feeding strategies, and habitats. By the Mesozoic, they had become dominant in marine and freshwater ecosystems, eventually giving rise to nearly all modern fish.

Today, ray-finned fish account for more than half of all known vertebrate species, a testament to their evolutionary success and adaptability.

The discovery of this fish and its significance for evolutionary biology is the subject of a research paper in Biology Letters with a preprint version available open access in bioRxiv. It is also explained in a Birmingham University news item.

Fossil fish sheds new light on extra teeth evolution to devour prey
Platysomus parvulus developed a unique way of eating never seen in ray-finned fish from that time – a ‘special set of teeth to help crush and chew tough food.
Experts have uncovered the earliest known example of a fish with extra teeth deep inside its mouth - a 310-million-year-old fossilised ray-finned fish that evolved a unique way of devouring prey.

Platysomus parvulus had a unique way of eating never seen in ray-finned fish from that time – a ‘tongue bite’, using a special set of teeth on the floor and roof of the mouth to help it crush and chew tough food like shells or insects.

Most fish today use their jaws to bite and chew, but some also have tongue bites, which work like a second set of jaws. Until now, the oldest known fish with such a dental arrangement lived about 150 million years later.

Publishing their findings in Biology Letters, the international research team used high-resolution CT scanning to reconstruct the internal anatomy of the fossil, which was discovered in Carboniferous rock formations in the UK county of Staffordshire.

Supported by the Royal Society, the National Science Foundation, and the Natural Environment Research Council, the researchers discovered a sophisticated arrangement of tooth plates on the roof of the fish’s mouth and the gill skeleton.

Our discovery helps us understand how fish evolved after the End-Devonian Mass Extinction, which wiped out many species. After this extinction event, fish started to change and develop new body shapes and ways of feeding. Tongue bites have evolved many times in different fish groups - including in modern ones such as trout and bonefish, demonstrating that it is a useful tool that helps fish eat a wider variety of food and survive in different environments.

Professor Sam Giles, lead author.
School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Science
University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK.

The tongue bite mechanism involves opposing sets of teeth—one on the roof of the mouth and another on the gill skeleton—that work together to grip and crush prey.

The Platysomus fossil studied is uniquely preserved in 3D, allowing researchers to peer inside its mouth and digitally dissect its anatomy. This reveals a multi-part lower tooth plate and narrow upper plate, both bearing a single layer of pointed teeth - suggesting a transitional stage in the evolution of more advanced tongue bite systems seen in later fish like Bobasatrania.

Later fish, like the Bobasatrania group, had more advanced tongue bites and did not use their jaws at all, relying on their tongue bite to crush hard food. Platysomus parvulus is like a missing link between simple jawed fish and more advanced tongue-biters.

Dr Matthew A. Kolmann, co-author
Department of Biology
University of Louisville, Kansas, U.S.A.

The discovery supports a model of rapid innovation in early ray-finned fishes following the End-Devonian Mass Extinction, with ray-finned fishes' experimentation with new feeding strategies.
Tongue bites are just one of many feeding innovations that emerged during this time. This fish represents a key evolutionary step and helps us understand how ancient ecosystems functioned and how modern fish lineages came to be.

Professor Matt Friedman, co-author
Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, U.S.A.

Publication:
Sam Giles, Matthew A. Kolmann, Matt Friedman
Tongue bite apparatus highlights functional innovation in a 310-million-year-old ray-finned fish
bioRxiv 2025.05.10.653277; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.05.10.653277

Abstract
Gill skeleton modifications for processing prey represent a major source of functional innovation in living ray-finned fishes. Here we present the oldest actinopterygian tongue bite, derived from the gill skeleton, in the Early Pennsylvanian (∼310 Ma) †Platysomus parvulus. Unrelated to extant tongue biters, this deep-bodied taxon possesses a large, multipartite basibranchial tooth plate opposing an upper tooth field centered on the vomer. This branchial structure occurs in conjunction with toothed jaws, indicating a role for both in feeding. †P. parvulus illustrates the assembly of the tongue bite in the geologically younger †Bobasatraniidae: large opposing dorsal (vomerine) and ventral (basibranchial) crushing plates associated with toothless jaws. The origin of tongue bites falls within the Carboniferous actinopterygian radiation, although postdates the first signs of durophagy in other ray-finned lineages by several million years. This lends support to a protracted ‘long-fuse’ model of actinopterygian diversification in the aftermath of the End-Devonian Mass Extinction.

1. Background
Living ray-finned fishes display a remarkable range of specializations associated with feeding. Among the most celebrated of these adaptations are modifications to the branchial apparatus in teleosts [1, 2], including so-called “tongue bites”, which involve opposing dentition on the ventral surface of the braincase and palate and tooth plates on the dorsal surface of the median gill skeleton [3, 4]. Tongue bites and modified pharyngeal jaws serve as additional zones for prey processing, with their decoupling from mandibular jaws hypothesized to increase functional versatility [5]. Extant teleost lineages with tongue bites are relatively young, with records extending only to the Mesozoic [6]. This is a time during which feeding innovations among fishes and other predatory taxa have been implicated in major macroecological shifts in aquatic communities [7].

While the Mesozoic represents a key evolutionary interval for many extant groups, entirely extinct fish lineages show examples that occurred independently of—and geologically long before—those in living species. Carboniferous fossils record the first episode of major morphological divergence among actinopterygians [8], apparent in external features like body shape and dental structure [9, 10]. Information about gill arches, in contrast, requires uncrushed specimens examined via acid preparation [11] or computed tomography [12]. The few described Carboniferous gill skeletons belong to taxa with conservative cranial and postcranial anatomy [12, 13], and do not differ substantially from those of Devonian examples [14].

Here we report gill-arch structure in a uniquely three-dimensional skull of the late Carboniferous actinopterygian †Platysomus parvulus (“†” precedes extinct taxa; [15]). With a deep body and skull, weakly toothed mandibular jaws, and a vertical suspensorium, †P. parvulus diverges strongly from generalized actinopterygian conditions and likely had distinctive locomotor and feeding ecologies. Most significantly, we find that it possesses enlarged basibranchial tooth plates that oppose a tooth field contributed to by the median vomer and paired entopterygoids. Dating to ∼310 Ma, this represents the earliest candidate for a tongue-bite mechanism in actinopterygians, predating the oldest evidence for similar arrangements in extant groups by over 150 Myr. Modified gill-arch structure in †Platysomus amplifies the pattern of structural innovation among Carboniferous ray-fins, illustrates a step in the evolution of more elaborate tongue bites in related taxa, and further highlights the widespread convergence in actinopterygian feeding strategies across clades and over time.

Fig. 1.

Cranial anatomy of †Platysomus superbus (NHMUK PV P11697) based on μCT scanning. (a) Bones of skull as preserved, in left lateral view; grey lines indicate external skull bones. Inset shows reconstruction of body shape, with maxilla and dentary in blue. (b) As in (a), but with dermal and jaw bones removed and elements repositioned. (c) Basibranchial tooth plate in dorsal view. (d) Upper jaw bones and parasphenoid in ventral view, with maxilla and palatal bones mirrored. (e) As in (d), but with basibranchial tooth plate shown in articulation. (f) Left mandible in lateral view and (g) medial view. Abbreviations: add, adductor fossa; ang, angular; art, articular; asp, ascending process of parasphenoid; ax, axial skeleton; bc, braincase; bhc, buccohypophysial canal; btp, basibranchial toothplate; cb, ceratobranchial; chy, ceratohyal; cor, coronoids; de, dentary; dpal, dermopalatine; ent, entopterygoid; entp, entopterygoid teeth; hmd, hyomandibula; mx, maxilla; orn, ornament; part, prearticular; pb, pharyngobranchial; pop, preoperculum; pp, posterior process of parasphenoid; psp, parasphenoid; quad, quadrate; sang, surangular; scl, sclerotic ossicle; te, teeth; vom, vomer. Colour coding: blue, cheek and outer jaw bones; light purple, palate and inner jaw bones; dark purple, braincase; turquoise, hyoid arch; yellow, branchial skeleton; brown, axial skeleton; red, lateral-line sensory canal pores.

Fig. 2.

Evolution of a tongue bite in a lineage of Paleozoic to Mesozoic actinopterygians. Upper and lower tongue bite components in, from left to right, †Platysomus superbus (NHMUK PV P11697), † “Platysomus” schultzei (KUVP 86168), and †Bobasatrania groenlandica (NHMD 161449a,b). Upper row of insets show tomogram sections (upper) and schematic drawings (lower) through the lower tooth plate. Lower row of insets show schematic drawing of cranium and tongue bite components in lateral view. Abbreviations: btp, basibranchial tooth plate; psp, parasphenoid; vom, vomer. Colour coding: light purple, upper tooth plate; dark purple, parasphenoid; yellow, branchial tooth plate.

Fig. 3.

Multiple origins of tongue bite mechanisms in actinopterygians. Stratigraphic range (left), schematic drawing of tongue bite components (middle) and body profile (right) of actinopterygian lineages with tongue bites. Ranges for extinct taxa are based on fossil occurrences; ranges for extant taxa are based on molecular clock estimates of total-group ages from [49, 50]. Colour coding: grey, midline supporting skeletal elements; purple, upper dentigerous region; yellow, lower dentigerous region. Tongue bite schematics based on CT data (this paper; supplementary material, table 1) and [29-31]. Body profile schematics of extant taxa adapted from [51]; of extinct taxa adapted from [18, 30, 31, 52].

Sam Giles, Matthew A. Kolmann, Matt Friedman
Tongue bite apparatus highlights functional innovation in a 310-million-year-old ray-finned fish
bioRxiv 2025.05.10.653277; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.05.10.653277

Copyright: © 2025 The authors.
Published by bioRvix. Open access.
Reprinted under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0)

In summary, this discovery not only pushes back the record of complex feeding adaptations in ray-finned fish but also delivers yet another fatal blow to creationist mythology. A fossil fish, perfectly equipped with the tools of death 310 million years before the supposed “Fall,” is about as far from the Garden of Eden as it gets.

Once again, the rocks tell a story that creationists would rather wasn’t written — but unfortunately for them, it’s written in stone.

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