This 150-million-year-old fish (seen as an artist’s illustration) wasn’t named after the piranha for nothing. It apparently used its long, dagger-shaped teeth to slice into other fish, according to a new study, as evinced by the slashed tailfins of some victims found nearby.

Researchers first discovered the animal—christened Piranhamesodon pinnatomus ( pinnatomus means “fin cutter”)—in 2016 in the same southern German limestone deposits as the famous feathered dinosaur Archaeopteryx . Most other fish in the shallow sea where P. pinnatomus lived had teeth adapted for crushing, not biting or tearing. (Their stomach contents suggest they ate hard-shelled prey such as clams and sea urchins.)

The scientists think P. pinnatomus might have used “aggressive mimicry” the way modern-day piranhas do—even though they belong to a different branch of the fish family tree. Piranhas today resemble their more peaceable relatives, allowing them to get close enough to unsuspecting prey that they can tear off a fin. (The attack doesn’t kill the prey, and fins can regrow.)

P. pinnatomus , too, resembles other fish found nearby—except for those teeth. The fossil is the oldest bony fish known that would have been able to cut flesh out of larger prey , the team reports today in Current Biology . The researchers say it’s a striking example of evolution inventing some of the same tricks twice.