Parayunnanolepis

Parayunnanolepis Temporal range: Lochkovian
Artist's reconstruction
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Subphylum:	Vertebrata
Infraphylum:	Gnathostomata
Class:	Placodermi
Order:	Antiarchi
Family:	Yunnanolepididae
Genus:	Parayunnanolepis
Species:	P. xitunensis
Binomial name
Parayunnanolepis xitunensis Tong-Dzuy & Janvier 1990

Parayunnanolepis xitunensis is an extinct, primitive antiarch placoderm. The fossil specimens, including a marvelously preserved, intact specimen, are known from the Lochkovian Epoch-aged Xitun formation of Early Devonian Yunnan. The armor is very similar to that of Yunnanolepis, but is distinguished by being comparatively more flattened.

An intact and exquisitely preserved specimen demonstrates that the living animal had pelvic fins and a pelvic girdle, thus proving that antiarchs had, primitively at least, pelvic girdles, and or inherited them from a common ancestor of both placoderms and other gnathostomes.

References