Amphiaspididae
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Amphiaspidae Temporal range: Early Devonian | |
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| Amphiaspis argo reconstruction | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Infraphylum: | Agnatha |
| Class: | †Pteraspidomorpha |
| Subclass: | †Heterostraci |
| Order: | †Cyathaspidiformes |
| Superfamily: | †Amphiaspidoidei |
| Family: | †Amphiaspididae Obruchev, 1936 |
| Genera | |
Amphiaspididae is a family of extinct amphiaspidid heterostracan agnathans whose fossils are restricted to Lower Devonian marine strata of Siberia[1] near the Taimyr Peninsula. In life, the amphiaspidids of Amphiaspididae are thought to be benthic animals that lived most of their lives mostly buried in the sediment of a series of hypersaline lagoons. Amphiaspids are easily distinguished from other heterostracans in that all of the plates of the cephalothorax armor are fused into a single, muff-like unit, so that the forebody of the living animal would have looked like a potpie with a pair of small, or degenerated eyes, with each flanked by a preorbital opening, and a simple, slit-like mouth.
