Archipelepidiformes

Archipelepidiformes
Temporal range: Late Telychian-Sheinwoodian
Archipelepis turbinata
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Chordata
Class:
†Thelodonti
Order:
†Archipelepidiformes

Wilson & Märss, 2009
Families

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 histology and morphology of pteraspidomorphs, hinting that the two groups share a common ancestor, and hinting that archipelepidiforms retain many primitive features from this common ancestor.[1] [2]

Currently, only whole body fossils of Archipelepis are known: these fossils show that archipelepids were tadpole-like animals with no fins aside from a forked caudal fin.[3]

  1. ^ Soehn, K. L., Märss, T., Caldwell, M. W. & Wilson, M. V. H., 2001: New and biostratigraphically useful thelodonts from the Silurian of the Mackenzie Mountains, Northwest Territories, Canada. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 21: 651-659 [1]
  2. ^ Wilson, Mark VH, and Tiiu Märss. "Thelodont phylogeny revisited, with inclusion of key scale-based taxa." Estonian Journal of Earth Sciences 58.4 (2009): 297œ310. [2]
  3. ^ Märss, Tiiu, VH Wilson, Mark, & Thorsteinsson, Raymond. "New thelodont (Agnatha) and possible chondrichthyan (Gnathostomata) taxa established in the Silurian and Lower Devonian of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago."Proceedings of the Estonian Academy of Sciences, Geology. Vol. 51. No. 2. Estonian Academy Publishers, 2002.