Migrating piranha teeth found, according to articles in ScienceDaily, National Evolutionary Synthesis Center (NESC) and National Geographic, 26 June 2009, and ScienceNOW, 29 June 2009. Piranhas are a South American freshwater fish with a fearsome reputation for devouring flesh. They have a single row of six triangular teeth, like the teeth on a saw blade, but their reputation as killers is somewhat overrated. According to Ichthyologist Wasila Dahdul of NESC, some only eat insects or plants and even the flesh-eaters rarely bite people. The most similar living fish to piranhas are a group of fishes commonly known as pacus. These are plant eating fish that have two rows of square teeth.
Palaeontologists have now found the fossil jaw of a piranha-like fish that appears to be an intermediate piranhas and pacus. It has been named Megapiranha paranensis and is believed to have lived between 8 and 10 million years ago in a South American river system known as the Paraná. As its name suggests Megapiranha was a big fish. Based on the size of its jaw it was over one metre long (3ft 3in), compared with living piranhas that usually grow to be 30cm (one foot) long. It has seven pointed teeth arranged in a zig-zag. John Lundberg, of the Academy of Natural Science, Philadelphia, one of the scientists who studied the fossil, commented: “It almost looks like the teeth are migrating from the second row into the first row.” Living piranhas have six teeth but Megapiranha had seven. Lundberg suggested, “One of the teeth may have been lost, or two of the original seven may have fused together over evolutionary time. It’s an unanswered question. Maybe someday we’ll find out.” As for what it ate, Wasila Dahdul commented: “It’s probably not something we can reconstruct at this point.” According to National Geographic “scientists suspect it had a diverse diet.”
ScienceDaily, NESC, National Geographic
Editorial Comment: The conclusions made about migrating teeth show the difference between actual scientific findings and the interpretation of science based on already held beliefs. The real data is one fish jawbone that had seven pointed teeth arranged in a zig-zag pattern, plus living fish with two rows of teeth, and a living fish with one row of teeth. Unless someone actually observes the two rows of teeth moving to form one row, there is no proof the fossil teeth were in the process of migrating.
Notice that no-one commented about how flat teeth became pointed teeth. A better explanation is that Megapiranha is exactly what its name suggests – a giant piranha. A better conclusion based on the scientific observations is that piranhas have always been piranhas, but were originally larger and had more teeth. Since then piranhas have shrunk and lost teeth. This is not evolution, it is degeneration, and is exactly what you would expect from the Biblical history of the world, i.e. creation of separate kinds, followed by degeneration. We are pleased to see one of the researchers admit that you cannot tell what a creature eats simply from the shape of it is teeth. If modern day piranhas, with their sharp pointed teeth, eat plants and/or insects, it is quite likely that Megapiranha ate plants, just as Genesis tells us animals were originally created to eat. (Ref. ichthyology, giants, devolution)
Evidence News 8 July 2009