Pteraspid

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
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Superclass: Agnatha
Class: †Pteraspidomorphi
Subclass: †Heterostraci
Order: †Pteraspidiformes
Berg 1940
Suborders and families
  • Anchipteraspididae
  • Podolaspididae
  • Protopteraspididae
  • Psammosteida
    • Drepanaspididae
    • Guerichosteidae
    • Obrucheviidae
    • Psammolepididae
    • Psammosteidae
    • Pycnosteidae
  • Pteraspidoidei
    • Gigantaspididae
    • Larnovaspididae
    • Pteraspididae
    • Protaspididae
    • Rhinopteraspididae
    • Skalviaspididae

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
  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.
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