Eriptychiida

{{Short description|Extinct order of jawless fishes}}

{{Automatic Taxobox

| name = Eriptychiida

| image = Overview of Eriptychius americanus PF 1795.png

| image_caption = Specimen of Eriptychius americanus

| fossil_range = Late Ordovician, {{Fossil range|450}}

| parent_authority = Tarlo 1962

| taxon = Eriptychiiformes

| authority = Ørvig 1958Ørvig, T. 1958. Pycnaspis splendens, new genus, new species, a new ostracoderm from the Upper Ordovician of North America. Proceedings of the United States National Museum 108(3391): 1-23. DOI: 10.5479/si.00963801.108-3391.1

| display_parents = 2

| subdivision_ranks = Families

| subdivision =

}}

Eriptychiida is an extinct marine taxon of vertebrate in the group Pteraspidomorphi.

The order contains the genus, Eriptychius, and fossilized specimens from this genus have been found in the Gull River Formation of Ontario, the Harding Formation of Colorado, and the Bighorn Dolomite of Wyoming. The group contains two documented species: Eriptychius americanus and Eriptychius orvigi.

Characteristics

The structure of the dentine of eriptychiids is in many respects closer to that of heterostracans than to that of astraspids. This is the only argument to place them, as the closest relatives to heterostracans, among the Ordovician vertebrates. A 450 million years old fossil of eriptychius shows it had a skull consisting of separate cartilage plates, with the frontal plates being mineralized, and that a thin body armor covered the head. It appears to be the first step towards a more solid braincase in vertebrates.[https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/news/2023/september/ancient-fish-reveals-how-vertebrates-put-heads-together.html Ancient fish reveals how vertebrates put their heads together]

Taxonomy

  • OrderEriptychiiformes Ørvig 1958{{cite web |author=Haaramo, Mikko |year=2003 |title=Pteraspidomorphi |url=http://www.helsinki.fi/~mhaaramo/metazoa/deuterostoma/chordata/agnatha/pteraspidomorphi.html |publisher=After Carroll, 1988, and Janvier, 1997 |website= in Mikko's Phylogeny Archive | access-date=26 October 2013}}{{cite book|last1=Nelson|first1=Joseph S.|last2=Grande|first2=Terry C.|last3=Wilson|first3=Mark V. H.|year=2016|title=Fishes of the World|edition=5th|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|isbn=9781118342336}}{{cite journal|last=van der Laan|first=Richard|year=2018|title=Family-group names of fossil fishes|issue=466 |journal=European Journal of Taxonomy |pages=1–167 |url=https://www.zobodat.at/pdf/EJT_0466_0001-0167.pdf| doi=10.5852/ejt.2018.466|doi-access=free}}
  • Genus ?†Eleochera Sansom & Smith 2005
  • FamilyEriptychiidae Tarlo 1962
  • Genus †Eriptychius Walcott 1892
  • FamilyOniscolepididae Märss & Karatajūtė-Talimaa 2009
  • Genus †Kallostrakon Lankester 1870
  • Genus †Oniscolepis Pander 1856 non Groß 1961 [Strosipherus Pander 1856]

In study at 2023, Eriptychius is placed just under Vertebrata, not considering class or order.{{Cite journal |last1=Dearden |first1=Richard P. |last2=Lanzetti |first2=Agnese |last3=Giles |first3=Sam |last4=Johanson |first4=Zerina |last5=Jones |first5=Andy S. |last6=Lautenschlager |first6=Stephan |last7=Randle |first7=Emma |last8=Sansom |first8=Ivan J. |date=2023-09-20 |title=The oldest three-dimensionally preserved vertebrate neurocranium |journal=Nature |volume=621 |issue=7980 |language=en |pages=782–787 |doi=10.1038/s41586-023-06538-y |issn=1476-4687|doi-access=free |pmid=37730987 |pmc=10533405 }}

See also

References

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