The earliest evidence of deep-sea vertebrates.

ABSTRACT: Vertebrate macroevolution has been punctuated by fundamental habitat transitions from shallow marine origins to terrestrial, freshwater, and aerial environments. Invasion of the deep sea is a less well-known ecological shift because of low fossilization potential and continual loss of abyssal fossil record by ocean floor subduction. Therefore, there has been a lack of convincing evidence of bottom-living vertebrates from pre-Paleogene deep seas. Here, we describe trace fossils from abyssal plain turbidites of the Tethys Ocean, which, combined with nannofossil dating, indicate that fishes have occupied the deep seafloor since at least the Early Cretaceous (Hauterivian-Barremian). These structures are identical to those produced by modern demersal fishes that feed by either scratching the su

SUBMITTER: Baucon A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10500276 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature