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Myllokunmingiidae
Myllokunmingiidae is a group of very early, jawless prehistoric fish (Agnathans) which lived during the Cambrian period. The Myllokunmingiids are the earliest known group of craniates. The group contains three genera, ''Haikouichthys'', ''Myllokunmingia'', and '' Zhongjianichthys''. Their fossils have been found only in the Maotianshan Shales lagerstätte. Taxonomy * Order †Myllokunmingiida Shu, 2003 ** Family †Myllokunmingiidae Shu, 2003 *** Genus †''Haikouichthys'' Luo, Hu & Shu 1999 sensu Shu ''et al.'', 2003 **** Species †'' Haikouichthys ercaicunensis'' Luo, Hu & Shu 1999 sensu Shu ''et al.'', 2003 *** Genus †''Myllokunmingia'' Shu, Zhang & Han, 1999 **** Species †'' Myllokunmingia fengjiaoa'' Shu, Zhang & Han, 1999 *** Genus †'' Zhongjianichthys'' Shu, 2003 **** Species †'' Zhongjianichthys rostratus'' Shu, 2003 See also Other stem vertebrates or transitional between olfactores and vertebrates are: *''Metaspriggina'' *''Yunnanozoon'' *''Palaeospondylus'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Agnatha
Agnatha (, Ancient Greek 'without jaws') is an infraphylum of jawless fish in the phylum Chordata, subphylum Vertebrata, consisting of both present (cyclostomes) and extinct ( conodonts and ostracoderms) species. Among recent animals, cyclostomes are sister to all vertebrates with jaws, known as gnathostomes. Recent molecular data, both from rRNA and from mtDNA as well as embryological data, strongly supports the hypothesis that living agnathans, the cyclostomes, are monophyletic. The oldest fossil agnathans appeared in the Cambrian, and two groups still survive today: the lampreys and the hagfish, comprising about 120 species in total. Hagfish are considered members of the subphylum Vertebrata, because they secondarily lost vertebrae; before this event was inferred from molecular and developmental data, the group Craniata was created by Linnaeus (and is still sometimes used as a strictly morphological descriptor) to reference hagfish plus vertebrates. While a few scie ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vertebrates
Vertebrates () comprise all animal taxa within the subphylum Vertebrata () ( chordates with backbones), including all mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish. Vertebrates represent the overwhelming majority of the phylum Chordata, with currently about 69,963 species described. Vertebrates comprise such groups as the following: * jawless fish, which include hagfish and lampreys * jawed vertebrates, which include: ** cartilaginous fish (sharks, rays, and ratfish) ** bony vertebrates, which include: *** ray-fins (the majority of living bony fish) *** lobe-fins, which include: **** coelacanths and lungfish **** tetrapods (limbed vertebrates) Extant vertebrates range in size from the frog species ''Paedophryne amauensis'', at as little as , to the blue whale, at up to . Vertebrates make up less than five percent of all described animal species; the rest are invertebrates, which lack vertebral columns. The vertebrates traditionally include the hagfish, which do no ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Metaspriggina
''Metaspriggina'' is a genus of chordate initially known from two specimens in the Middle Cambrian Burgess Shale and 44 specimens found in 2012 at the Marble Canyon bed in Kootenay National Park. Whilst named after the Ediacaran organism ''Spriggina'', later work has shown the two to be unrelated. ''Metaspriggina'' is considered to represent a primitive chordate, possibly transitional between cephalochordates and the earliest vertebrates, albeit this has been questioned because it seems to possess most of the characteristics attributed to craniates. It lacked fins and it had a weakly developed cranium, but it did possess two well-developed upward-facing eyes with nostrils behind them. ''Metaspriggina'' also possessed a notochord, along with seven pairs of pharyngeal bars, possibly made of cartilage. Surprisingly they were not formed from a singular bone, but they were formed of multiple separate pairs of bones, along with first two of them that were enlarged compared to t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cambrian Stage 3
Cambrian Stage 3 is the still unnamed third stage of the Cambrian. It succeeds Cambrian Stage 2 and precedes Cambrian Stage 4, although neither its base nor top have been formally defined. The plan is for its lower boundary to correspond approximately to the first appearance of trilobites, about million years ago, though the globally asynchronous appearance of trilobites warrants the use of a separate, globally synchronous marker to define the base. The upper boundary and beginning of Cambrian Stage 4 is informally defined as the first appearance of the trilobite genera ''Olenellus'' or '' Redlichia'' around million years ago. Naming The International Commission on Stratigraphy has not officially named the 3rd stage of the Cambrian. The stage approximately corresponds to the "Atdabanian", which is used by geologists working in Siberia. Biostratigraphy The oldest trilobite known is ''Lemdadella'' which appears at the beginning of the '' Fallotaspis'' zone. The Cambrian radiati ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Myllokunmingia Fengjiaoa
''Myllokunmingia'' is a genus of basal chordate from the Lower Cambrian Maotianshan shales of China 518 to 490 mya and is thought to be a vertebrate, although this is not conclusively proven. The species M. fengjiaoa is 28 mm long and 6 mm high. It is among the oldest possible craniates, found in the lower Cambrian Chengjiang (). It appears to have a skull and skeletal structures made of cartilage. There is no sign of biomineralization of the skeletal elements. The holotype was found in the Yuanshan member of the Qiongzhusi Formation in the Eoredlichia Zone near Haikou at Ercaicun, Kunming City, Yunnan, China. Only one species is known – ''Myllokunmingia fengjiaoa'' (Shu, Zhang & Han). Related creatures are ''Haikouichthys'' and '' Zhongjianichthys''. The animal has a distinct head and trunk with a forward sail-like (1.5 mm) dorsal fin and a ventral finfold (probably paired) further back. The maximum height of M. fengijaoa is at 6mm. The maximum height poin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cambrian Chordates
The Cambrian chordates are an extinct group of animals belonging to the phylum Chordata that lived during the Cambrian, between 485 and 538 million years ago. The first Cambrian chordate known is '' Pikaia gracilens'', a lancelet-like animal from the Burgess Shale in British Columbia, Canada. The discoverer, Charles Doolittle Walcott, described it as a kind of worm (annelid) in 1911, but was later realised to be a chordate. Since the discovery of other Cambrian fossils from the Burgess Shale in 1991, and from the Chengjiang biota of China in 1991, which were later found to be of chordates, several Cambrian chordates are known, with some fossils considered as putative chordates. The Cambrian chordates are characterised by the presence of segmented muscle blocks called myomeres and notochord, the two defining features of chordates. Before the full understanding of Cambrian fossils, chordates as members the most advanced phylum were believed to appear on Earth much later than the Cam ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Prehistoric Jawless Fish Families
Prehistory, also known as pre-literary history, is the period of human history between the use of the first stone tools by hominins 3.3 million years ago and the beginning of recorded history with the invention of writing systems. The use of symbols, marks, and images appears very early among humans, but the earliest known writing systems appeared 5000 years ago. It took thousands of years for writing systems to be widely adopted, with writing spreading to almost all cultures by the 19th century. The end of prehistory therefore came at very different times in different places, and the term is less often used in discussing societies where prehistory ended relatively recently. In the early Bronze Age, Sumer in Mesopotamia, the Indus Valley Civilisation, and ancient Egypt were the first civilizations to develop their own scripts and to keep historical records, with their neighbors following. Most other civilizations reached the end of prehistory during the following Iron Age. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Haikouella
''Haikouella'' is an agnathan chordate from the Lower Cambrian Maotianshan Shales of Chengjiang County in Yunnan Province, China. An analysis in 2015 placed ''Haikouella'' as a junior synonym of ''Yunnanozoon,'' another Maotianshan shale Cambrian chordate''.'' It is similar to the form ''Yunnanozoon'', which is possibly a hemichordate. Still, there are anatomical differences from ''Yunnanozoon'', including a larger stomach and smaller (0.1 mm) pharyngeal teeth. ''Haikouella'' does not have bones or a movable jaw, but it otherwise resembles vertebrates. ''Haikouichthys'' and ''Myllokunmingia'', which seem to share significant fish-like characters, have been found in the same beds. Suspected hemichordates are also known from these deposits as well as from the Middle Cambrian Burgess Shale of British Columbia. Other than possible fish scales/plates from the Upper Cambrian of Wyoming, these Chinese fish-like chordates are one of the only known pre-Ordovician craniates. ''Haikou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zhongxiniscus
''Zhongxiniscus'' is a genus of primitive chordate from eastern Yunnan that lived during the Early Cambrian. Known from a single specimen, it had a small, broad and short, fish-like body that was roughly ten millimeters in length. It possessed S-shaped myomeres, numbering roughly seven per one millimeter of length. Two triangular fins are evident on the dorsal margin. Evolutionary relationships When compared to other Cambrian chordates like the possible cephalochordate ''Cathaymyrus'' and the two known vertebrates ''Haikouichthys'' and ''Myllokunmingia'', ''Zhongxiniscus'' resembles ''Cathaymyrus'' in having S-shaped myomeres, but is different in having a dorsal fin and a shorter body. ''Zhongxiniscus'' approaches in form to ''Haikouichthys'' and ''Myllokunmingia'' in its myomeres and its dorsal fin, but differs from the latter two having zigzag myomeres and fin rays, which ''Zhongxiniscus'' evidently lacks. For these reasons, ''Zhongxiniscus'' is tentatively considered to be an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Palaeospondylus
''Palaeospondylus'' is a fish-like fossil vertebrate. Its fossils are described from the Achanarras slate quarry in Caithness, Scotland. The fossil as preserved is carbonized, and indicates an eel-shaped animal up to in length. The skull, which must have consisted of hardened cartilage, exhibits pairs of nasal and auditory capsules, with a gill apparatus below its hinder part, and ambiguous indications of ordinary jaws. The phylogeny of this fossil has puzzled scientists since its discovery in 1890, and many taxonomies have been suggested. In 2004, researchers proposed that ''Palaeospondylus'' was a larval lungfish. Previously, it had been classified as a larval tetrapod, unarmored placoderm, an agnathan, an early stem hagfish, and a chimera. A 2017 study suggested that it was a stem chondrichthyan. In 2022, researchers report, based on studies using synchrotron radiation X-ray micro-computed tomography, that the neurocranium of ''Palaeospondylus'' was similar to those of t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yunnanozoon
''Yunnanozoon lividum'' (Yunnan + Greek ζῷον ''zôion'', ''lividum''; "livid animal of Yunnan") is an extinct species of possible vertebrate or chordate from the Lower Cambrian, Chengjiang biota of Yunnan province, China. It is thought of as a deuterostome suspected of being either a hemichordate or chordate. In 2022, a study reanalyzed fossils of ''Yunnanozoon'' and found it to be one of the earliest members of the vertebrate family tree. ''Yunnanozoon'' is similar to the form ''Haikouella'', which is almost certainly a chordate. Still, there are anatomical differences from ''Haikouella'', including a smaller stomach and much larger (1 mm) pharyngeal teeth. It is by no means certain whether Yunannozoon possessed features such as a heart, gills, etc., which are seen in well-preserved specimens of ''Haikouella''. ''Yunnanozoon'' somewhat resembles the Middle Cambrian ''Pikaia'' from the Burgess shale of British Columbia in Canada. Thirteen pairs of symmetrically arra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Olfactores
Olfactores is a clade within the Chordata that comprises the Tunicata (Urochordata) and the Vertebrata (sometimes referred to as Craniata). Olfactores represent the overwhelming majority of the phylum Chordata, as the Cephalochordata are the only chordates not included in the clade. This clade is defined by a more advanced olfactory system which, in the immediate vertebrate generation, caused the appearance of nostrils. A rudimentary neural crest is present in tunicates, implying its presence in the olfactores ancestor also, as vertebrates have a true neural crest. For this reason, they are also known as Cristozoa. Olfactores hypothesis While the hypothesis that Cephalochordata is a sister taxon to Craniata is of long standing and was once widely accepted—likely influenced by significant tunicate morphological apomorphies from other chordates, with cephalochordates even being nicknamed ‘honorary vertebrates’—studies since 2006 analyzing large sequencing datasets strong ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
