Pteraspid

order of fishes (fossil)

Pteraspids were early agnathan vertebrates. They lived from later Silurian to the end of the Devonian. Fossils are found in Europe and North America.

Pteraspid
Temporal range: Upper Silurian-Devonian
Lamiaspis longiripa
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Superclass: Agnatha
Class: Pteraspidomorphi
Subclass: Heterostraci
Order: Pteraspidiformes
Berg 1940
Suborders and families

The whole group has the head and front of the body armoured. Delicate, finger-like parts of the plates were at the edges of the mouth. This suggests they were filter feeders taking plankton from the water column.[1]

References change

  1. Purnell, Mark A. 2002. Feeding in extinct jawless heterostracan fishes and testing scenarios of early vertebrate evolution. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B: Biological Sciences. 269 (1486) 83-88.[1]