The Devonian is a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic era during the Phanerozoic eon, spanning 60.3 million years from the end of the preceding Silurian period at 419.2 million years ago (Ma), to the beginning of the succeeding Carboniferous period at 358.9 Ma. It is named after Devon, South West England, where rocks from this period were first studied.
The Silurian is a geologic period and system spanning 24.6 million years from the end of the Ordovician Period, at 443.8 million years ago (Mya), to the beginning of the Devonian Period, 419.2 Mya. The Silurian is the shortest period of the Paleozoic Era. As with other geologic periods, the rock beds that define the period's start and end are well identified, but the exact dates are uncertain by a few million years. The base of the Silurian is set at a series of major Ordovician–Silurian extinction events when up to 60% of marine genera were wiped out.
Pterygotus is a genus of giant predatory eurypterid, a group of extinct aquatic arthropods. Fossils of Pterygotus have been discovered in deposits ranging in age from Middle Silurian to Late Devonian, and have been referred to several different species. Fossils have been recovered from four continents; Australia, Europe, North America and South America, which indicates that Pterygotus might have had a nearly cosmopolitan (worldwide) distribution. The type species, P. anglicus, was described by Swiss naturalist Louis Agassiz in 1839, who gave it the name Pterygotus, meaning "winged one". Agassiz mistakenly believed the remains were of a giant fish; he would only realize the mistake five years later in 1844.
Baragwanathia is a genus of extinct lycopsid plants of Late Silurian to Early Devonian age, fossils of which have been found in Australia, Canada, China and Czechia. The name derives from William Baragwanath who discovered the first specimens of the type species, Baragwanathia longifolia, at Thomson River.
Praenuculidae is an extinct family of prehistoric bivalves in the superfamily Nuculoidea. Praenuculidae species lived from the early Ordovician, Arenig stage through the Early Devonian Emsian stage. Praenuculidae fossils are found worldwide, present on every continent except Antarctica. Species in this family are thought to have been sessile, attached to the substrate in shallow infaunal marine water environments, where they formed shells of an aragonite composition. The family Praenuculidae was named by A. Lee McAlester in 1969.
Parahughmilleria is a genus of eurypterid, an extinct group of aquatic arthropods. Fossils of Parahughmilleria have been discovered in deposits of the Devonian and Silurian age in the United States, Canada, Russia, Germany, Luxembourg and Great Britain, and have been referred to several different species. The first fossils of Parahughmilleria, discovered in the Shawangunk Mountains in 1907, were initially assigned to Eurypterus. It would not be until 54 years later when Parahughmilleria would be described.
Holdenius is an extinct genus of arthrodire placoderm fish which lived during the Late Devonian period.
Gluteus minimus is an extinct species of animal from the Late Devonian (Frasnian-Famennian) of Iowa that is the only species within the genus Gluteus. It was first collected in 1902, but only described in 1975 and the holotype is SUI 34978-91. Each animal appears as a bi-lobed lens up to 11 mm × 8 mm, and almost all specimens share the same slight asymmetry. The species is of uncertain affinities, having been variously thought of as either fish teeth, some sort of fish scales, brachiopods, or otoliths.
The Devonian Jeffersonville Limestone is a mapped bedrock unit in Indiana and Kentucky. It is highly fossiliferous. The Vernon Fork Member contains Volcanic ash associated with the Tioga Bentonites.
Gracianella is a genus of fossil brachiopods. It was described by Johnson and Coucot in 1967, and existed from the Silurian to the Devonian of Australia, Austria, Canada, China, the Czech Republic, Italy, Tajikistan, and the United States. A new species, G. paulula, was described by Andrzej Baliński in 2012, from the early Devonian of Ukraine.
Panenka is a genus of fossil saltwater clams, marine bivalve molluscs in the family Praecardiidae. Like most bivalves, these molluscs were suspension feeders. They lived in the Devonian Period.
Paleontology in Wisconsin refers to paleontological research occurring within or conducted by people from the U.S. state of Wisconsin. The state has fossils from the Precambrian, much of the Paleozoic, some a parts of the Mesozoic and the later part of the Cenozoic. Most of the Paleozoic rocks are marine in origin. Because of the thick blanket of Pleistocene glacial sediment that covers the rock strata in most of the state, Wisconsin’s fossil record is relatively sparse. In spite of this, certain Wisconsin paleontological occurrences provide exceptional insights concerning the history and diversity of life on Earth.
The Sundvollen Formation is a geologic formation cropping out along the northern and eastern shores of Steinsfjorden, Oslo Region, Norway. It preserves fossils dating back to the Gorstian to Ludfordian stages of the Late Silurian period.
Arthur James Boucot was an American paleontologist, biostratigrapher, and taphonomist who was an expert in Silurian and Devonian marine invertebrates, particularly brachiopods.
Adelophthalmidae is a family of eurypterids, an extinct group of aquatic arthropods. Adelophthalmidae is the only family classified as part of the superfamily Adelophthalmoidea, which in turn is classified within the infraorder Diploperculata in the suborder Eurypterina.
This timeline of eurypterid research is a chronologically ordered list of important fossil discoveries, controversies of interpretation, and taxonomic revisions of eurypterids, a group of extinct aquatic arthropods closely related to modern arachnids and horseshoe crabs that lived during the Paleozoic Era.
Algospongia is a class of small, calcified fossil organisms of uncertain taxonomic position, assigned in a comprehensive 2010 review to "Animalia" incertae sedis, but both prior to and post that to an unnamed phylum of Algae; other workers simply list them as Problematica. They occur in carbonate rocks of the Paleozoic era and their last representatives occur in the Late Permian geological period. Characteristic genera include Aoujgalia, Moravammina and the early-appearing Wetheredella, although the taxonomic validity of the last named genus has been disputed.
Leiorhynchus is an extinct genus of brachiopod belonging to the order Rhynchonellida and family Leiorhynchidae. Specimens have been found in South America, North America, and Russia in beds of middle Devonian to Mississippian age. The genus may have been adapted to dysaerobic environments, colonizing areas of reduced oxygen concentrations rich in organic matter. The genus has been used as an index fossil in North America.
Dudleyaspis is an extinct genus of Lower to Middle Devonian odontopleurid trilobites that lived in a shallow sea that lay between Euramerica and Gondwana. It was named in 1949 by Prantl & Pribyl.
