A Real Life Pokemon: Bataspis crux

Publication Info:

Transcript:

Xinyuan Meng et al. 2026. Bataspis crux, a galeaspid (jawless stem gnathostome) from the Lochkovian of Yunnan with a batwing-shaped head adapted for hydrodynamic efficiency. Palaeontology 69 (4): e70081; doi: 10.1111/pala.70081

Meet Bataspis crux, the 419 million year old fish that had more in common with an airplane than anyone would expect, and might be giving paleontologists some clues about how the very first predators evolved.

Episode 329

Notes:

There's a new weird little creature out of China that really looks like it belongs in sci-fi. So, gnathostomes are the group of animals that includes all jawed vertebrates, everything from fish to well, us. But, that doesn't mean that the earliest like stem gnathostomes always had jaws. Some of them were more like weird armored fish that looked a whole lot like the later placoderms minus the jaw and plus some weird. One of those groups was the galeaspids, which it didn't have the normal paired fins that we expect to see in fish. They also had big armored heads and weirdly enough, no jaw. And they don't even really have a modern counterpart that paleontologists can use to get a better understanding of how they lived. But, just because they're extinct and don't have a great modern analog doesn't mean that they were doing anything wrong. Meet Betaspis crux, the early Devonian jawless jawed fish that would have been swimming in what's now China 419 million years ago. And when I say it swam in what's now China, it swam really well for an animal that didn't have the fins that we expect from fish. Researchers recently 3D modeled that big armored bat-wing shaped head and found something pretty amazing. Cuz Betaspis could generate lift incredibly efficiently using that head, especially from a lower angle of attack. As a matter of fact, they'd never seen the same lift-to-drag ratio in any of its close relatives. Meaning that Betaspis was an incredibly efficient swimmer, especially for animals at this time. And it and its close relatives could have been taking the first steps toward a much more predatory active lifestyle. As usual, if you want more information, here's the sources.