A “Mammalian-like” Pycnodont Fish: Independent Acquisition of Thecodont Implantation, True Vertical Replacement, and Carnassial Dentitions in Carnivorous Mammals and a Peculiar Group of Pycnodont Fish

Vertebrates developed tooth replacement over 400 million years ago. Then, 200 million years later, the combination of vertical tooth replacement with the thecodont implantation (teeth in bone sockets) appeared a key morphological innovation in mammalian evolution. However, we discovered that an extinct fish taxon, Serrasalmimus secans, showed the same innovation in the lineage Serrasalmimidae, which survived the end Cretaceous mass extinction event. The carnassial teeth are known in both mammals and pycnodont fish, but these teeth do not share the same tissues or developmental processes. Therefore, this serrasalmimid pycnodont fish might have independently acquired mammal-like tooth replacement and implantation, indicating that the fish and mammals convergently evolved the carnassial dental morphologies at about the same time, approximately 60 My ago, in separate ecosystems.