Minjinia Temporal range: | |
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Scientific classification ![]() | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | † Placodermi |
Order: | † incertae sedis |
Genus: | † Minjinia Brazeau et al., 2020 |
Species: | †M. turgenensis |
Binomial name | |
†Minjinia turgenensis Brazeau et al., 2020 | |
Minjinia turgenensis is a species of placoderm from the Devonian of Mongolia. It is known from a single specimen preserving part of the skull, including remains of endochondral bone, which indicates that a mineralised endoskeleton evolved before the split between bony and cartilaginous fish, and that it was lost in the latter group. [1]
Minjinia, an ancient armored fish from the Devonian period, helps scientists understand how the shoulder bones of vertebrates first developed. Researchers found evidence that its skull was connected to the shoulder in a way that suggests the shoulder bones may have evolved from parts of the gill skeleton, supporting one of the main ideas about how fish fins and shoulders first appeared. [2]
In the phylogenetic analysis ran by Brazeau et al., M. turgenensis was found as the sister taxon of a clade formed by Entelognathus , Ramirosuarezia , Janusiscus and the crown gnathostomes. A cladogram simplified from their analysis is shown below: [1]