Megapiranha paranensis
| Megapiranha paranensis | ||||||||||||
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| Temporal occurrence | ||||||||||||
| Upper Miocene | ||||||||||||
| 10 to 8 million years | ||||||||||||
| Locations | ||||||||||||
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name of the genus | ||||||||||||
| Megapiranha | ||||||||||||
| Cione et al., 2009 | ||||||||||||
| Scientific name of the species | ||||||||||||
| Megapiranha paranensis | ||||||||||||
| Cione et al., 2009 |
Megapiranha paranensis is an extinct freshwater fish species from South America . The species is the first fossilized saw tetra (Serrasalmidae).
discovery
The teeth of Megapiranha paranensis were found in 2009 by paleontologist Alberto Luis Cione and his team during excavations in Entre Ríos on the Rio Paraná in Argentina . Only his premaxilla and teeth were found, the rest of the body could only be calculated.
description
Megapiranha paranensis was estimated to be between 95 and 128 centimeters long, about four times the body length of today's piranhas. Comparable to those sizes are omnivorous and herbivorous Sägesalmler as Colossoma macroponum and piaractus brachypomus . The zigzag pattern of its teeth occupies an intermediate position between today's piranhas with the single-row incisors and the herbivorous pacu with double-row incisors. Its teeth cannot be used to say with certainty whether Megapiranha paranensis was carnivorous or herbivorous .
Systematics
Using statistical comparison methods such as maximum thrift , it turned out that the genus Megapiranha is the sister taxon of the Piranha clade, consisting of the genera Pygopristis , Pygocentrus , Pristobrycon and Serrasalmus and developed independently of this clade.
swell
- [1] (PDF; 3.0 MB) Alberto Luis Cione, Wasila M. Dahdul, John G. Lundberg and Antonio Machado-Allison: Megapiranha paranensis, a new genus and species of Serrasalmidae (Characiformes, Teleostei) from the Upper Miocene of Argentina , Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 2009, 29 (2).
- [2] Sketches and assumed proportions of Megapiranha paranensis
Notes and individual references
- ^ Toothy 3-foot Piranha Fossil Found ; Retrieved May 10, 2013
- ↑ a b http://www.angelfire.com/biz/piranha038/megapiranha_paranensis.html