Despite new clues, this ancient fish has stumped scientists for centuries

Cross a boomerang, a ribbon and a fish, and you might get Pegasus volans

An illustration of a an eel-like fish with very long fins above and below its body and a transparent sac dangling from its abdomen

An artist’s reconstruction shows what Pegasus volans — or, at least, the front half of it preserved in the fossil record — might have looked like in life, complete with guts that hang externally from the main body.

Margaux Boetsch

It wasn’t an ancient boomerang.