Furcacaudiformes is an extinct

order Order, ORDER or Orders may refer to: * Categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, and understood * Heterarchy, a system of organization wherein the elements have the potential to be ranked a number of d ...

of jawless fish in the class

Thelodonti Thelodonti (from Greek: "feeble teeth")Maisey, John G., Craig Chesek, and David Miller. Discovering fossil fishes. New York: Holt, 1996. is a class of extinct jawless fishes with distinctive scales instead of large plates of armor. There is mu ...

. Because the paucity of intact fossils, especially since some families are known entirely from scale fossils, taxonomy of thelodonts is based primarily on scale morphology. A 2009 assessment of thelodont

taxonomy Taxonomy is the practice and science of categorization or classification. A taxonomy (or taxonomical classification) is a scheme of classification, especially a hierarchical classification, in which things are organized into groups or types. ...

by Wilson and Märss merges the orders Loganelliiformes, Katoporiida and Shieliiformes into

Thelodontiformes Thelodontiformes is an extinct order of jawless fish of the Silurian.Kiaer, J., 1932: New coelolepids from the Upper Silurian on Oesel (Esthonia). Eesti Loodusteaduse Arhiiv, Seeria 1, 10: 167-176. Because the paucity of intact fossils, especial ...

, places families Lanarkiidae and Nikoliviidae into Furcacaudiformes (because of scale morphology) and establishes

Archipelepidiformes Archipelepidiformes is an order of extinct jawless fishes in the class Thelodonti. Archipelepidiforms are regarded as the basalmost thelodonts primarily because the histology and morphology of archipelepidiforms have many similarities with the h ...

as the basal-most order.

References

External links

* Thelodonti Devonian jawless fish Prehistoric jawless fish orders {{Devonian-jawless-fish-stub