Qataraspis Temporal range: | |
---|---|
NHMUK PV P41933 (left) and NHMUK PV P41934 (right) | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | † Placodermi |
Order: | † Arthrodira |
Family: | † Arctolepididae |
Genus: | † Qataraspis White, 1969 |
Type species | |
†Qataraspis deprofundis White, 1969 |
Qataraspis [1] (meaning "Qatar shield") is an extinct genus of primitive arthrodire placoderm that lived sometime around the Late Devonian in what is now Qatar. [2] The type species is Q. deprofundis. [3]
The holotype, NHMUK PV P41933 and NHMUK PV P41934 (an almost complete right anterior lateral plate), was discovered during the 1950s by the Iraq Petroleum Company within the 4.5 inches (11 cm) wide borehole DK 68 at a depth of 3,828 metres (12,559 ft), making it the deepest known occurrence of a fossil vertebrate to date. [3] The holotype was sent to England to be studied and Qataraspis deprofundis was named and described by White (1969). [3]
Casts of the holotype also exist, under specimen numbers PV P 75116 and PV P 75117. [4]
White (1969) classified Qataraspis as a basal member of the Arthrodira. [3] This classification was followed through by Denison (1978) in a review of the Placodermi, where it was placed in the Arctolepididae. [2]
Dunkleosteus is an extinct genus of large arthrodire ("jointed-neck") fish that existed during the Late Devonian period, about 382–358 million years ago. It was a pelagic fish inhabiting open waters, and one of the first apex predators of any ecosystem.
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Neopetalichthys yenmenpaensis is an extinct petalichthid placoderm from the Early Devonian of China.
Buchanosteidae is a family of arthrodire placoderms that lived from the Early to Middle Devonian. Fossils appear in various strata in Russia, Central Asia, Australia, and China.
Langeronyx is an extinct genus of basal rhynchosaurid known from the early Middle Triassic Bromsgrove Sandstone Formation of Warwickshire, UK. It contains a single species, Langeronyx brodiei, originally included in the genus Rhynchosaurus. R. brodiei was first described and named by Michael Benton in 1990, but its redescription by Martín D. Ezcurra, Felipe Montefeltro and Richard J. Butler in 2016 recovered it as more closely related to the more advance hyperodapedontine than to the type species of Rhynchosaurus and thus it was moved to its own genus. The generic name Langeronyx honors the Brazilian paleontologist Max Cardoso Langer in recognition of his rhynchosaur research, combined with the Greek onyx (óνυξ) meaning "claw", a common suffix for rhynchosaur genera. L. brodiei is known solely from the holotype, a partial skull divided into the two specimens WARMS G6097/1 and NHMUK PV R8495, housed in the Warwickshire Museum, Warwick and Natural History Museum, London, respectively. Other specimens originally referred to R. brodiei either do not overlap with its type or can be just as likely referred to other basal rhynchosaurids. L. brodiei is one of two basal archosauromorphs known from the Bromsgrove Sandstone Formation, the other being the lesser known Rhombopholis scutulata.
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