''Brindabellaspis stensioi'' ("

Erik Stensiö Prof Erik Helge Osvald Stensiö HFRSE (2 October 1891 – 11 January 1984) was a Sweden, Swedish paleozoology, paleozoologist. He later took his new surname from his place of origin and is occasionally referred to with both names (as Erik Ander ...

Brindabella Ranges The Brindabella Range, commonly called The Brindabellas or The Brindies, is a mountain range located in Australia, on a state and territory border of New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory (ACT). The range rises to the west of C ...

Shield") is a placoderm with a flat, platypus-like snout from the

Early Devonian The Early Devonian is the first of three Epoch (geology), epochs comprising the Devonian period, corresponding to the Lower Devonian Series (stratigraphy), series. It lasted from and began with the Lochkovian Stage , which was followed by the P ...

of the Taemas-Wee Jasper reef in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

.Early Devonian Fish Had Platypus-Like Snout
/ref> When it was first discovered in 1980, it was originally regarded as a

Weejasperaspid Weejasperaspididae ("Shields of Wee Jasper") is a family (biology), family of three extinct acanthothoracid placoderms indigenous to the Early Devonian of Victoria (Australia), Victoria and New South Wales, Australia. Description The Weejasper ...

acanthothoracid Acanthothoraci (''spine chests'') is an extinct group of chimaera-like placoderms who were closely related to the rhenanid placoderms. Superficially, the acanthoracids resembled scaly chimaeras, or (relatively) heavily armored ptyctodonts. Th ...

due to anatomical similarities with the other species found at the reef. According to Philippe Janvier, anatomical similarities of ''B. stensiois brain and braincase with those of jawless fish, such as the

Osteostraci The class Osteostraci (meaning "bony shells") is an extinct taxon of bony-armored jawless fish, termed "ostracoderms", that lived in what is now North America, Europe and Russia from the Middle Silurian to Late Devonian. Anatomically speaking, ...

and the

Galeaspida Galeaspida (from Latin, 'Helmet shields') is an extinct taxon of jawless marine and freshwater fish. The name is derived from ''galea'', the Latin word for ''helmet'', and refers to their massive bone shield on the head. Galeaspida lived in shallo ...

, strongly suggest that ''B. stensioi'', and also the antiarchs, are basal placoderms closest to the ancestral placoderm.

References

* Young, Gavin C. 1980, A new Early Devonian placoderm from New South Wales, Australia, with a discussion of placoderm phylogeny: ''

Palaeontographica This is a list of academic journals, monographic series, and other serials published by E. Schweizerbart. A B C D E F G H I J K L M N P Q R S T U V W Z {{columns-list, colwidth=30em, *''Zeitschrift ...

'' 167A pp. 10–76. 2 pl., 27 fig. * Janvier, Philippe. Early Vertebrates Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, 1998. * Long, John A. The Rise of Fishes: 500 Million Years of Evolution Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996.

External links

Palaeos article on ''B. stensioi''
Placoderm genera Early Devonian fish Devonian placoderms Placoderms of Australia {{Placoderm-stub