Palaeonisciformes
| Palaeonisciformes Temporal range: Late Silurian–Late Cretaceous | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Platysomus gibbosus | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Subphylum: | Vertebrata |
| Infraphylum: | Gnathostomata |
| Superclass: | Osteichthyes |
| Class: | Actinopterygii |
| Subclass: | Chondrostei[1] |
| Order: | Palaeonisciformes |
| Families | |
The Palaeonisciformes are an extinct order of early ray-finned fishes (Actinopterygii) which began in the Early Silurian and ended in the Late Cretaceous. The name of the order is derived from the Greek words paleo (ancient) and ὀνίσκος (oniskos or woodlouse), probably pertaining to the organization of the fishes' scales, similar to the exoskeletal plating of woodlice.
Classification
It is not a natural group, but is instead a paraphyletic assemblage of the early members of several ray-finned fish lineages. It has traditionally encompassed most Paleozoic actinopterygians, except those that exhibit strange body forms (such as the deep-bodied Platysomoidea, or those assigned definitively to any of the living groups of ray-finned fishes.
Andreolepis hedei has proven so far to be the earliest-known actinopterygiian, living around 420 million years ago (Late Silurian in Russia, Sweden, Estonia, and Latvia. Actinopterygians underwent an extensive diversification during the Carboniferous, after the end-Devonian Hangenberg extinction.
Timeline of genera
References
- ↑ "Palaeonisciformes". Paleobiology Database. Retrieved November 17, 2012.
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Palaeonisciformes. |
- Märss, Tiiu (2001). "Andreolepis (Actinopterygii) in the Upper Silurian of northern Eurasia" (PDF, 1.4 MB). Proceedings of the Estonian Academy of Sciences. Geology 50 (3): 174–189. ISSN 1736-6046.
- Gardiner, Brian; Schaeffer, Bobb; Masserie, Judy A. (August 2005). "A review of lower actinopterygian phylogeny". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 144 (4): 511–525. doi:10.1111/j.1096-3642.2005.00181.x.
- Sallan, Lauren Cole; Coates, Michael I. (1 June 2010). "End-Devonian extinction and a bottleneck in the early evolution of modern jawed vertebrates". PNAS 107 (22): 10131–10135. Bibcode:2010PNAS..10710131S. doi:10.1073/pnas.0914000107. PMC 2890420. PMID 20479258.
- Palaeonisciformes at University of Bristol
- Sepkoski, Jack (2002). "A compendium of fossil marine animal genera". Bulletins of American Paleontology 364: 560. ISBN 978-0-87710-450-6. ISSN 0007-5779. Archived from the original on 2011-07-23. Retrieved 2012-03-06.