Lower Devonian Armored Agnatha

An armored agnatha jawless bony fish, Victoraspis longicornualis, from Lower Devonian deposits of Podolia, Ukraine. Victoraspis longicornualis was named by Anders Carlsson and Henning Bloom back in 2008. The new osteostracan genus and species was described based on material from Rakovets' present day Ukraine. This new taxa shares characteristics with the two genera Stensiopelta (Denison, 1951) and Zychaspis (Javier, 1985). Phylogenetic analysis supports the position of Victoraspis as the sister group to the monophyletic, Stensiopelta.

The Agnatha are a superclass of vertebrates. He looks quite different to our modern Agnatha, who include lamprey and hagfish. Ironically, hagfish are vertebrates who do not have vertebrae. Sometime in their evolution they lost them as they adapted to their environment.

Ref: Carlsson, A.&Blom, H. Paläont. Z. (2008) 82: 314. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02988898

Old NID
239872

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