''Amphoraspis stellata'' is an amphiaspidid heterostracan in the

family Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...

Amphiaspididae Amphiaspididae is a family of extinct amphiaspidid heterostracan agnathans whose fossils are restricted to Lower Devonian marine strata of Siberia Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an ex ...

. Its fossils are restricted to early

Devonian The Devonian ( ) is a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic era, spanning 60.3 million years from the end of the Silurian, million years ago (Mya), to the beginning of the Carboniferous, Mya. It is named after Devon, England, whe ...

-aged marine strata of the Taimyr Peninsula,

Siberia Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part of ...

. ''A. stellata'', as with all other amphiaspidids, is thought to have been a

benthic The benthic zone is the ecological region at the lowest level of a body of water such as an ocean, lake, or stream, including the sediment surface and some sub-surface layers. The name comes from ancient Greek, βένθος (bénthos), meaning "t ...

filter feeder Filter feeders are a sub-group of suspension feeding animals that feed by straining suspended matter and food particles from water, typically by passing the water over a specialized filtering structure. Some animals that use this method of feedin ...

that lived on top of, or buried just below the surface of the substrate of hypersaline lagoon-bottoms. So far, ''A. stellata'' is known from at least one, 14 centimeter-long, broad and dorsally rounded cephalothoracic armor that is shaped vaguely like, as the generic name suggests, an

amphora An amphora (; grc, ἀμφορεύς, ''amphoreús''; English plural: amphorae or amphoras) is a type of container with a pointed bottom and characteristic shape and size which fit tightly (and therefore safely) against each other in storag ...

.Novitskaya L.I.; Karatayute Talimaa V.N., 1989: New amphiaspididae from the lower devonian deposits in taimyr russian sfsr ussr. Paleontologicheskii Zhurnal.(3): 112-116 The animal had small, possibly degenerate eyes that were flanked laterally by a small, crescent-shaped branchial opening. The small eyes, in turn, laterally flank a small, slit-shaped mouth at the center of the anterior-most end of the cephalothorax. The external surface of the armor has a unique micro-ornamentation of a pattern of star-like shapes.

References

Amphiaspidida Devonian jawless fish Early Devonian fish Cyathaspidiformes genera Fauna of Siberia Fossils of Russia Early Devonian first appearances Devonian extinctions Fossil taxa described in 1989 {{Devonian-jawless-fish-stub