"Unearthing Gigantic Jurassic Lampreys: Insights into their Predatory Past"
Fossil lampreys from the Jurassic period have shed light on the evolution of modern lampreys' feeding biology. The fossils, discovered in China, exhibit well-developed movable biting plates on the tongue-like piston, a feature never before seen in known fossil lampreys. These ancient lampreys had a toothed oral disc and tongue-like piston that closely resembled those of the pouched lamprey, a species now found in the Southern Hemisphere. The fossils provide insights into the evolutionary process, ancestral state, and coevolutionary interactions of lampreys, as well as the early biogeographical history of modern lampreys. Phylogenetic analyses based on the fossils have also revised the timeline and relationships of lamprey species.