Rhenanida

Rhenanida
Temporal range: Emsian - Upper Frasnian
Gemuendina stuertzi
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Placodermi
Order: Rhenanida
Broili, 1930
Genera

†?Ohioaspis
Asterosteus
Nefudina
Gemuendina
Jagorina
Bolivosteus

Rhenanida ("Rhine (fish)") is an order of scaly placoderms. Unlike most other placoderms, the rhenanids' armor was made up of a mosaic of unfused scales and tubercles. The patterns and components of this "mosaic" correspond to the plates of armor in other, more advanced placoderms, suggesting that the ancestral placoderm had armor made of unfused components, as well.

All rhenanids were flattened, ray-like, bottom-dwelling predators that lived in marine environments.