Sarda sarda

This morning my friend John Orcutt sent me this great picture of a boat he and his Dad spotted while wine-touring along the Oregon coast.

Seeing my name always catches my attention because it is so unusual (on account of my Dad misspelling it on my birth certificate). However the boat is probably not named after me but rather Sarda sarda, a species of fish that is commonly called the Atlantic Bonito. It is my understanding that this fish received its name from the island of Sardinia around which it was caught but these days it is more commonly caught by commercial fishermen around New York's coast.

Sarda sarda is often used in cuisine, especially in Japanese food. It has a cosmopolitan distribution though the globe and to my knowledge is not currently threatened or endangered by overfishing.

Shark vs. Dinosaur

A recent find in Utah reveals a large prehistoric lake around 200 million years with an amazing fossil cache including an enormous, carnivorous dinosaur and several species of sharks. Anatomical features of the dinosaur suggest it specialized in eating fish, including sharks and huge bony fish, meals which palaeontologist James Kirkland describes as “like biting through chain mail [since] fish in the past were more armored than they are today."

The dinosaur, a relative of the crested dino Dilophosaurus, was about 20 feet long and so would have been a formidable adversary for its ferocious prey. The dinosaur’s slender, serrated teeth are quite unusual and only found in dinosaurs like Spinosaurus and Suchimimus.

Dilophosaurus was well adapted to being a fisherman. Its nasal openings retracted back from the end of its snout so that it could, like today's crocodiles and alligators, still breath when its mouth was underwater.

There are clear tracks and claw scrapes showing the dinosaur wading into the lake to catch its prey. "We have counted over 3,000 individual claw marks and toe scrapes that show incredibly detailed preservation," reveals palaeontologist Andrew Milner. "We can see details of cuticle on the tips of claws, skin impressions, scale scratch lines and where claw cuticle was overlapped by the fleshy toe pads at the end of the toes."

Winner: Fossil Caption Contest

Thanks to everyone who sent in their entry. The submitted captions include:

Sometimes, fishing is about patience. Sometimes, fishing is about lots of patience.
Or…
Given sufficient time, an improperly hooked baitfish will eventually win its freedom, though it may tear its flesh from its bones in the process.
-TheBrummell

Sepia-tone ink on micrite matrix of a Diplomystus dentatus fossil. Snap.
-Neil

Almost got it, just a little bit longer...
-tradwolley

"It was (stretches arms sideways) this old!"
Or ...
"New proof that Neolithic humans possessed sandwiches, vacuum flasks and funny little collapsible chairs."
-John Hopkin

Guess we found Nemo after all....
-KAi

Great captions! I had a hard time deciding so enlisted the help of one of my colleagues. And the winner is:

TheBrummell for “Sometimes, fishing is about patience. Sometimes, fishing is about lots of patience.”

Congratulations! And now your prize: You can post on Fish Feet for a day.

Reminder: Fossil Caption Contest

A reminder that Monday I started a humerous Fossil Caption Contest. There will be a prize for whoever comes up with the best caption!

Contest closes Sunday.

Fish Finds Land-Legs

Evolution doesn’t happen all it once, it takes a few tries :)

Fossil Caption Contest

This is a great picture, I have no idea how it was done, but it is very funny.

A prize for whoever comes up with the best caption!

Contest closes on Friday.

Darwin Fish Contest

Here is your chance to come up with your own parody of the fish emblem! Ring of Fire is holding a contest to come up with a new fish, they will manufacture and sell the winner's design. Click here to read more and check out my submission (below), which to be honest is a big large and probably won’t be practical for manufacturing:) The contest closes on 16 April.

Friday’s Mystery Fossil Revealed

Well here it is! Friday’s mystery fossil is an acanthodian, an ancient group of fish which include the earliest known jawed vertebrates. The mysterious bivalve-like structure is actually the pectoral fin of Brochoadmones milesi from the Devonian of Canada’s Northwest Territories.

Congrats to The Brummell who came closest with the suggestion that the spines were of an ancient shark, similar to the modern spiny dogfish (Squalus acanthius). Indeed, acanthodians share many characteristics with sharks.

That was extra tough, don’t worry the next one will be easier!

Hanke, G.F. and Wilson, M.V.H. 2006. Anatomy of the Early Devonian acanthodian Brochoadmones milesi based on nearly complete body fossils, with comments on the evolution and development of paired fins. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 26:526-537.