来自中国科学院古脊椎动物与古人类研究所、北京大学和浙江自然博物馆的研究人员在中国西南贵州省兴义的附近发现了一副近乎完整的鱼骨架。这一被研究人员命名为Potanichthys xingyiensis的鱼取代了它的欧洲近亲成为了最古老的飞鱼。研究人员将这一成果发表在10月31日的《皇家学会学报B》（Proceedings of the Royal Society B1）上。

加拿大阿尔伯塔大学的古生物学家Alison Murray说：“他们获得了极好的骨细节。我总是羡慕能获得像这样的材料。”

这些化石表明Potanichthys短而胖，长宽差不多，生活在三叠纪。“这个时期的鱼都是短胖，笨重的。你不会料想到它们可以飞出水面，”Murray说。

英国牛津大学的古生物学家Matt Friedman说：“但它们就是有几分飞行的能力。”

像现代的飞鱼一样，Potanichthys具有发育完善的胸鳍，不对称的分叉尾鳍用于辅助滑翔，尾鳍下叶圆胖与现代飞鱼非常相似。Friedman说：“它们利用这些鳍长距离跳跃。如果说Potanichthys与现代飞鱼有相似之处，那么滑翔数十米不是没有可能的。”

Potanichthys不是现在飞鱼的祖先，除适应滑翔的相似之处，“它们是完全不同的进化尝试，”Friedman说。

化石的发现者说它与一种称作thoracopterids的现在灭绝的飞鱼家族有关系。Thoracopterids生存在大约2亿年前的三叠纪晚期，曾经在意大利和奥地利发现它们的化石。Potanichthys是唯一在亚洲被发现的，追溯至数亿年前的三叠纪中期。

论文的第一作者徐光辉（Guang-Hui Xu）说Potanichthys和欧洲的thoracopterids可能有一个共同的祖先。奥地利的thoracopterid有鳞片，意大利的却完全没有。而Potanichthys有四行鳞片延伸至它的尾鳍。“Potanichthys提供了一个过渡，这些它们之间缺失的环节，”徐光辉说。

此次发现的化石，将Thoracopteridae属飞鱼的地理分布范围从古特提斯洋的西海岸扩大到东海岸。

二叠纪生物大灭绝事件对地球生态系统造成的毁灭性影响比地球历史上任何大灭绝事件的影响都要严重，几乎90%到95%的海洋物种因此消失。“新研究发现表明海洋生态系统的重建速度比此前想象中的速度要快得多，”徐光辉说。

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Nature新闻摘要：

Oldest flying fish fossil found in China

A fish from China has displaced its European relatives to become the oldest known gliding fish.A near-complete skeleton of the fish, named Potanichthys xingyiensis, was found near Xingyi in Guizhou province in southwest China.

论文摘要：

A new stem-neopterygian fish from the Middle Triassic of China shows the earliest over-water gliding strategy of the vertebrates

Flying fishes are extraordinary aquatic vertebrates capable of gliding great distances over water by exploiting their enlarged pectoral fins and asymmetrical caudal fin. Some 50 species of extant flying fishes are classified in the Exocoetidae (Neopterygii: Teleostei), which have a fossil record no older than the Eocene. The Thoracopteridae is the only pre-Cenozoic group of non-teleosts that shows an array of features associated with the capability of over-water gliding. Until recently, however, the fossil record of the Thoracopteridae has been limited to the Upper Triassic of Austria and Italy. Here, we report the discovery of exceptionally well-preserved fossils of a new thoracopterid flying fish from the Middle Triassic of China, which represents the earliest evidence of an over-water gliding strategy in vertebrates. The results of a phylogenetic analysis resolve the Thoracopteridae as a stem-group of the Neopterygii that is more crown-ward than the Peltopleuriformes, yet more basal than the Luganoiiformes. As the first record of the Thoracopteride in Asia, this new discovery extends the geographical distribution of this group from the western to eastern rim of the Palaeotethys Ocean, providing new evidence to support the Triassic biological exchanges between Europe and southern China. Additionally, the Middle Triassic date of the new thoracopterid supports the hypothesis that the re-establishment of marine ecosystems after end-Permian mass extinction is more rapid than previously thought.

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