An international team of scientists has found 380-million-year-old fossilised fish with abdominal muscles, in the remote Kimberley region. The palaeontologists said it was rare for the soft tissue in the placoderm fossils to be so well preserved and it allowed them to map the muscular structure of the fish. Placoderms had a type of armour plating and were often compared with sharks.
Flinders University palaeontologist John Long said researchers had not previously believed abdominal muscles would be found in fish.
“We didn’t expect these fish to have abdominal muscles, they’re the abs that people have,” he said.
“Sharks don’t have them, nor do any other living fish, but all living four-legged animals do have them, such as reptiles, mammals and birds. Read on….