Lechriaspis

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Lechriaspis
Temporal range: Early Devonian, Emsian
Scientific classification Red Pencil Icon.png
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Superclass: Agnatha
Class: Pteraspidomorphi
Subclass: Heterostraci
Order: Cyathaspidiformes
Family: Poraspidae
Genus: Lechriaspis
Elliott & Petriello, 2011
Type species
Lechriaspis patula
Elliott & Petriello, 2011

Lechriaspis is an extinct genus of poraspid heterostracan agnathan known from the Early Devonian of northern Utah, western United States. [1]

Contents

Discovery

Lechriaspis is known only from the holotype specimen. It was collected from the Grassy Flat Member of the Water Canyon Formation of northern Utah, which dates to the Emsian stage of the late Early Devonian. The specimen shows evidence of puncture wounds indicating predation by a eurypterid. Lechriaspis and Poraspis thomasi represent the first true members of the Cyathaspidida to be described from the Devonian of the western United States. [1]

Etymology

Lechriaspis was first named by David K. Elliott and Michael A. Petriello in 2011 and the type species is Lechriaspis patula. [1]

Related Research Articles

The Devonian is a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic, spanning 60 million years from the end of the Silurian, 419.2 million years ago (Mya), to the beginning of the Carboniferous, 358.9 Mya. It is named after Devon, England, where rocks from this period were first studied.

<i>Supersaurus</i>

Supersaurus is a genus of diplodocid sauropod dinosaur that lived in North America during the Late Jurassic period. The type species, S. vivianae, was first discovered by Vivian Jones of Delta, Colorado, in the middle Morrison Formation of Colorado in 1972. The fossil remains came from the Brushy Basin Member of the formation, dating to about 153 million years ago. A potential second species, S. lourinhanensis, is known from Portugal and has been dated to a similar time.

Placodermi

Placodermi is a class of armoured prehistoric fish, known from fossils, which lived from the Silurian to the end of the Devonian period. Their head and thorax were covered by articulated armoured plates and the rest of the body was scaled or naked, depending on the species. Placoderms were among the first jawed fish; their jaws likely evolved from the first of their gill arches. Placoderms are thought to be paraphyletic, consisting of several distinct outgroups or sister taxa to all living jawed vertebrates, which originated among their ranks. This is illustrated by a 419-million-year-old fossil, Entelognathus, from China, which is the only known placoderm with a type of bony jaw like that found in modern bony fishes. This includes a dentary bone, which is found in humans and other tetrapods. The jaws in other placoderms were simplified and consisted of a single bone. Placoderms were also the first fish to develop pelvic fins, the precursor to hindlimbs in tetrapods, as well as true teeth. Paraphyletic groupings are problematic, as one can not talk precisely about their phylogenic relationships, their characteristic traits and complete extinction. 380-million-year-old fossils of three other genera, Incisoscutum, Materpiscis and Austroptyctodus, represent the oldest known examples of live birth. In contrast, one 2016 analysis concluded that placodermi are likely monophyletic.

Protaspididae

Protaspididae is an extinct family of pteraspidid heterostracan agnathans. Fossils of the various genera are found in early Devonian-aged marine strata. Protaspidids were once thought to represent a transitional form between the Pteraspididae and the Psammosteida, bearing the broad head shield shape of the latter, due to a more benthic (bottom-dwelling) existence, but recent phylogenical comparisons demonstrate that the protaspidids are actually highly derived pteraspidids, and that the anchipteraspidids, the most primitive of pteraspidids, are the sister-group of the Psammosteids.

<i>Gryposaurus</i>

Gryposaurus was a genus of duckbilled dinosaur that lived about 80 to 75 million years ago, in the Late Cretaceous of North America. Named species of Gryposaurus are known from the Dinosaur Park Formation in Alberta, Canada, and two formations in the United States: the Lower Two Medicine Formation in Montana and the Kaiparowits Formation of Utah. A possible additional species from the Javelina Formation in Texas may extend the temporal range of the genus to 66 million years ago.

<i>Hagryphus</i>

Hagryphus, is an oviraptorosaurian theropod dinosaur from the Upper Cretaceous Period of what is now Utah.

Rhenanida

Rhenanida is an order of scaly placoderms. Unlike most other placoderms, the rhenanids' armor was made up of a mosaic of unfused scales and tubercles. The patterns and components of this "mosaic" correspond to the plates of armor in other, more advanced placoderms, suggesting that the ancestral placoderm had armor made of unfused components, as well.

The Kaiparowits Formation is a sedimentary rock formation found in the Kaiparowits Plateau in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, in the southern part of Utah in the western United States. It is over 2800 feet thick, and is Campanian in age. This Upper Cretaceous formation was formed from alluvial floodplains of large rivers in coastal southern Laramidia; sandstone beds are the deposit of rivers, and mudstone beds represent floodplain deposits. It is fossiliferous, with most specimens from the lower half of the formation, but exploration is only comparatively recent, with most work being done since 1982. It has been estimated that less than 10% of the Kaiparowits formation has been explored for fossils. Most fieldwork has been conducted by The Natural History Museum of Utah.

<i>Jaekelopterus</i> Extinct Devonian species of the Eurypterida (sea scorpions)

Jaekelopterus is a genus of predatory eurypterid, a group of extinct aquatic arthropods. Fossils of Jaekelopterus have been discovered in deposits of Early Devonian age, from the Pragian and Emsian stages. There are two known species: the type species J. rhenaniae from brackish to fresh water strata in the Rhineland, and J. howelli from estuarine strata in Wyoming. The generic name combines the name of German paleontologist Otto Jaekel, who described the type species, and the Greek word πτερόν (pteron) meaning "wing".

<i>Onychodus</i>

Onychodus is a genus of prehistoric lobe-finned fish which lived during the Devonian period. It is one of the best known of the group of onychodontiform fishes. Scattered fossil bones of Onychodus were first discovered in 1857, in North America, and described by John Strong Newberry. Other species were found in Australia, England, Norway and Germany showing that it had a widespread range.

<i>Brontomerus</i>

Brontomerus is a possibly dubious genus of camarasauromorph sauropod which lived during the early Cretaceous. It was named in 2011 and the type species is Brontomerus mcintoshi. It is probably a fairly basal camarasauromorph, though the taxon is difficult to resolve due to incompleteness of the material. It is most remarkable for its unusual hipbones, which would have supported the largest thigh muscles, proportionally, of any known sauropod. The specific name is in honor of physicist and North American sauropod expert John "Jack" Stanton McIntosh.

Talos is an extinct genus of carnivorous bird-like theropod dinosaur, an advanced troodontid which lived during the late Cretaceous period in the geographic area that is now Utah, United States.

Poraspis is an extinct genus of heterostracan. Fossils are found in Late Silurian and Early Devonian marine strata of Norway, Canada and the United States.

<i>Adelolophus</i>

Adelolophus is a genus of lambeosaurine hadrosaurid dinosaur from Upper Cretaceous rocks in the U.S. state of Utah. The type and only known species is A. hutchisoni. This type specimen consists only of a broken maxilla, but it is despite this fragmentary nature very significant. It constitutes the oldest known lambeosaur remains from North America, as well as the only known lambeosaur species from the Wahweap Formation, of which it pertains to the Upper Member. Among its relatives, it seems to be particularly similar to Parasaurolophus, rather than animals like Lambeosaurus; phylogenetic analysis confirms this, finding it in Parasaurolophini. It would have lived in a wet environment, bordering on the sea but with a more arid season during some times of the year. This environment would have been shared with a diverse variety of fish and turtles, as well as other dinosaurs like ceratopsids and tyrannosaurids.

<i>Panamintaspis</i>

Panamintaspis snowi is an extinct species of pteraspidid heterostracan agnathan which existed during the early Middle Devonian period of Death Valley, California. Fossils are found in Late Emsian-aged marine strata of the Lost Burro Formation. P. snowi strongly resembles Pteraspis, though while it was originally described as a member of the same family, Pteraspididae, a recent phylogenetic reassessment of the order Pteraspidiformes places P. snowi within the paraphyletic family "Protopeteraspidae," as the sister taxon of the suborder Pteraspidoidei.

Protopteraspididae

Protopteraspididae is an extinct family of pteraspidid heterostracan agnathans. Fossils of the various genera are found in early Devonian-aged marine strata. Protopteraspidids were once thought to represent a taxon of basal pteraspidids but recent evaluations demonstrate that Protopteraspididae is a paraphyletic group of various transitional forms representing a gradual transition between the more advanced Pteraspoidei, and the anchipteraspidids and the Psammosteids.

<i>Actinolepis</i> (placoderm)

Actinolepis is an extinct genus of actinolepid placoderm from the Early Devonian. Four species are known: A. magna from Estonia, A. spinosa from Latvia, the type species A. tuberculata from New Zealand and A. zaikai from Belarus.

<i>Diplacanthus</i> Extinct genus of Devonian spiny sharks.

Diplacanthus is an extinct genus of Mid to Late Devonian fish in the class Acanthodii, known as spiny sharks.

References

  1. 1 2 3 David K. Elliott and Michael A. Petriello (2011). "New poraspids (Agnatha, Heterostraci) from the Early Devonian of the western United States". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 31 (3): 518–530. doi:10.1080/02724634.2011.557113. S2CID   130564395.