In Depth First considered to be a weejasperaspid acanthothoracid placoderm, studies of the braincase indicate that Brindabellaspis may have been fairly close to the ancestral form all the placoderm fish that appeared after it. Further Reading - A new Early Devonian placoderm from New South Wales, Australia, with a discussion of placoderm phylogeny. - Palaeontographica … Read more
In Depth Bianchengichthys is a genus of placoderm fish that lived during the Silurian. At the time of its description the genus got a lot of attention because the genus is considered to be close to what we would expect the ancestral link between bony placoderm fish and modern fish forms to have looked like. … Read more
In Depth Originally described as a species of the genus Ctenurella in 1977, Austroptyctodus was established as a distinct genus in 1997, mainly upon differences in the pattern of the skull roof. A specimen of Austroptyctodus has been found with three unborn embryos inside of it, clearly showing that Austroptyctodus bore live young as opposed … Read more
In Depth At first glance Entelognathus resembled a placoderm fish, yet at the time of the initial description in 2013, the jaw structure of Entelognathus is the earliest known example of a modern jaw structure in the fossil record. It is still unknown exactly how Entelognathus fits in evolutionary (if at all) to later fish … Read more
In Depth The Gogo Formation of Australia is easily one of the most important areas in the world concerning the study of Devonian era fish, and of these the genus Materpiscis is one of the most significant. The reason for this is that the holotype specimen of Materpiscis is a pregnant female with a single … Read more