Andreolepis

Andreolepis
Temporal range: Pridoli
~418.7–416 Ma
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Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Superclass: Osteichthyes
Family: †Andreolepididae
Märss, 2001
Genus: †Andreolepis
Gross, 1968
Type species
Andreolepis hedei
Gross, 1968
Species
  • A. hedei Gross, 1968
  • A. petri Märss, 2001

Andreolepis is an extinct genus of prehistoric fish, which lived around 420 million years ago.[1] It was described by Walter Gross in 1968 based on scales found in the Hemse Formation in Gotland, Sweden.[2] It is placed in the monogeneric family Andreolepididae and is generally regarded as a primitive member of the class Actinopterygii[3] based on its ganoid scale structure; however some new research regards it as a stem group of osteichthyans.[4]

Researchers have used microremains of an Andreolepsis to determine its origins and found that it dated back to the late Silurian.[5]

Andreolepis was capable of shedding its teeth by basal resorption, which is considered a rather primitive mode of tooth replacement.[6] This makes it informative about the evolution of teeth.[6]

Fossil remains are mostly limited to scales, platelets and fragmented bones. At first only the species A. hedei was described. Scales, platelets and a spine from the Central Urals in Russia have thereafter been assigned to a new species, A. petri, due to differences in fossil morphology.[1] Remains have been found in Russia, and A. hedei fossils have also been uncovered in the Hemse Formation of Sweden, the Himmiste Beds Formation of Estonia, Latvia,[1] and the West Khatanzeya Formation of Nova Zemlya, Russia.[3] Other fossils were found in Great Britain, the former of which it was originally described from.[1] Andreolepis fossils have also recently been recovered from Western Australia and were identified as Andreolepis sp. aff. A. petri due to the resemblance to A. petri scales.[7]

  1. ^ a b c d Märss, T. (2001). "Andreolepis (Actinopterygii) in the upper Silurian of northern Eurasia". Proceedings of the Estonian Academy of Sciences, Geology. 50 (3): 174–189. doi:10.3176/geol.2001.3.03. S2CID 67798212.
  2. ^ Gross, Walter (1968). "Fraglich Actinopterygier-Schuppen aus den Silur Gotlands". Lethaia. 1 (2): 184–218. doi:10.1111/j.1502-3931.1968.tb01736.x. ISSN 0024-1164.
  3. ^ a b The Paleobiology Database
  4. ^ Botella, Hector; Blom, Henning; Dorka, Markus; Ahlberg, Per Erik; Janvier, Philippe (August 2007). "Jaws and teeth of the earliest bony fishes". Nature. 448 (7153): 583–586. Bibcode:2007Natur.448..583B. doi:10.1038/nature05989. ISSN 1476-4687. PMID 17671501. S2CID 4337868.
  5. ^ Chen, Donglei; Janvier, Philippe; Ahlberg, Per E.; Blom, Henning (August 2012). "Scale morphology and squamation of the Late Silurian osteichthyanAndreolepisfrom Gotland, Sweden". Historical Biology. 24 (4): 411–423. doi:10.1080/08912963.2012.668187. ISSN 0891-2963. S2CID 84869644.
  6. ^ a b Chen, Donglei; Blom, Henning; Sanchez, Sophie; Tafforeau, Paul; Ahlberg, Per E. (2016-10-17). "The stem osteichthyan Andreolepis and the origin of tooth replacement". Nature. 539 (7628): 237–241. Bibcode:2016Natur.539..237C. doi:10.1038/nature19812. ISSN 0028-0836. PMID 27750278. S2CID 205251184.
  7. ^ Burrow, Carole J.; Turner, Susan; Trinajstic, Kate; Young, Gavin C. (2019-02-27). "Late Silurian vertebrate microfossils from the Carnarvon Basin, Western Australia". Alcheringa: An Australasian Journal of Palaeontology. 43 (2): 204–219. doi:10.1080/03115518.2019.1566496. ISSN 0311-5518. S2CID 134883695.