Paraplesiobatis

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Paraplesiobatis
Temporal range: Emsian
Paraplesiobatis heinrichsi.jpg
Artist's reconstruction
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Placodermi
Order: Pseudopetalichthyida
Denison 1975
Family:Paraplesiobatidae
Berg 1940
Genus:Paraplesiobatis
Species:P. heinrichsi
Binomial name
Paraplesiobatis heinrichsi
Broili, 1933

Paraplesiobatis heinrichsi is a lightly armored pseudopetalichthyid placoderm from the Hunsrückschiefer Lagerstätte of Early Devonian Germany. The type and only known specimen is an articulated, but very incomplete individual consisting of a large, incomplete, plate-covered head, and some of the vertebral column, with a total length of 10 centimeters. The specimen strongly resembles Pseudopetalichthys to the point that many experts suggest they may be of the same genus or species, [1] though because the only specimens of both genera are so poorly preserved, talk of synonymizing the two can not begin (let alone continue) until more, better preserved specimens are found. [1]

Pseudopetalichthyida order of fishes (fossil)

Pseudopetalichthyida is an extinct order of lightly armored placoderms known only from rare fossils in Lower Devonian strata in Hunsrück, Germany. Like Stensioella heintzi, and the Rhenanida, the Pseudopetalichthids had armor made up of a mosaic of tubercles. Like Stensioella heintzi, the Pseudopetalichthids' placement within Placodermi is suspect. However, due to a gross lack of whole, uncrushed, articulated specimens, there are no other groups that the Pseudopetalichthids could be, for a lack of a better word, pigeonholed into.

Hunsrück Slate

The Hunsrück Slate is a Lower Devonian lithostratigraphic unit, a type of rock strata, in the German regions of the Hunsrück and Taunus. It is a lagerstätte famous for exceptional preservation of a highly diverse fossil fauna assemblage.

Lagerstätte sedimentary deposit that exhibits extraordinary fossils with exceptional preservation

A Lagerstätte is a sedimentary deposit that exhibits extraordinary fossils with exceptional preservation—sometimes including preserved soft tissues. These formations may have resulted from carcass burial in an anoxic environment with minimal bacteria, thus delaying the decomposition of both gross and fine biological features until long after a durable impression was created in the surrounding matrix. Lagerstätten span geological time from the Neoproterozoic era to the present. Worldwide, some of the best examples of near-perfect fossilization are the Cambrian Maotianshan shales and Burgess Shale, the Devonian Hunsrück Slates and Gogo Formation, the Carboniferous Mazon Creek, the Jurassic Solnhofen limestone, the Cretaceous Santana, Yixian and Tanis formations, and the Eocene Green River Formation.

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References

  1. 1 2 Denison, Robert (1978). Placodermi Volume 2 of Handbook of Paleoichthyology'. Stuttgart New York: Gustav Fischer Verlag. pp. 22–23. ISBN   978-0-89574-027-4.