Ancient fish fossils highlight the strangeness of our vertebrate ancestors

Nearly 440-million-year-old finds from China are of some of the first vertebrates with jaws

illustration of brown and tan Xiushanosteus mirabilis fish underwater

Specimens of this armored, jawed fish named Xiushanosteus mirabilis (shown in an artist’s rendition) dominate a new trove of fossils found in southern China that dates to the dawn of jawed vertebrates.

Heming Zhang

My, what small teeth they had.