Jurassic piranha found fossilised along with fishy victims missing chunks from their fins

Researchers have discovered a new species of flesh-eating fish, which lived during the time of the dinosaurs.

A fossil of the piranha-like fish was discovered in limestone deposits in south Germany, along with a grim indication of its hunting habits.

Victims of the fish were found close by and, according to a press statement form Queensland’s James Cook University, they didn’t meet a happy end.

“We have other fish from the same locality with chunks missing from their fins,” marine biologist David Bellwood said.

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“This is an amazing parallel with modern piranhas, which feed predominantly not on flesh but the fins of other fishes.

“It’s a remarkably smart move as fins regrow, a neat renewable resource.

“Feed on a fish and it is dead; nibble its fins and you have food for the future.”

The researcher described the fish in a study published in Cell Press this week, featuring images of the fossil in close detail.

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The specimen’s well-preserved jaws revealed a mouth full of long, pointed teeth.

Researcher discovered the lower jaw was equipped with a set of triangular teeth with serrated cutting edges.

These teeth, along with the morphology of the jaw, would have made the fish a successful predator.

“We were stunned that this fish had piranha-like teeth,” biologist Martina Kölbl-Ebert said.

“It is like finding a sheep with a snarl like a wolf.”

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The team was surprised to find the Jurassic-era fish consumed flesh, which was a trait they thought bony fish developed much later.

“The new finding represents the earliest record of a bony fish that bit bits off other fishes, and what's more it was doing it in the sea,” Bellwood said.

“So when dinosaurs were walking the earth and small dinosaurs were trying to fly with the pterosaurs, fish were swimming around their feet tearing the fins or flesh off each other.”