Furcacaudiformes

Furcacaudiformes
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Subphylum:	Vertebrata
Class:	†Thelodonti
Order:	†Furcacaudiformes Wilson & Caldwell, 1998
Families
†Apalolepididae †Barlowodidae †Drepanolepididae †Furcacaudidae †Lanarkiidae †Nikoliviidae †Pezopallichthyidae

Furcacaudiformes is an extinct order of jawless fish in the class Thelodonti.^[1]

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 recent assessment of thelodont taxonomy by Wilson and Märss in 2009 merges the orders Loganelliiformes, Katoporiida and Shieliiformes into Thelodontiformes, places families Lanarkiidae and Nikoliviidae into Furcacaudiformes (because of scale morphology) and establishes Archipelepidiformes as the basal-most order.^[2]

References

1. Wilson, M.V.H. & Caldwell, M.W., 1998: The Furcacaudiformes, a new order of jawless vertebrates with thelodont scales, based on articulated Silurian and Devonian fossils from northern Canada. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 18: 10–29
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.

External links

• Data related to Furcacaudiformes at Wikispecies