Minjinia
Extinct species of fish
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Minjinia turgenensis is a species of placoderm from the Devonian of Mongolia. It is known from a single specimen preserving part of the skull, including remains of endochondral bone, which indicates that a mineralised endoskeleton evolved before the split between bony and cartilaginous fish, and that it was lost in the latter group.[1]
| Minjinia Temporal range: | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | †Placodermi |
| Order: | †incertae sedis |
| Genus: | †Minjinia Brazeau et al., 2020 |
| Species: | †M. turgenensis |
| Binomial name | |
| †Minjinia turgenensis Brazeau et al., 2020 | |
Minjinia, an ancient armored fish from the Devonian period, helps scientists understand how the shoulder bones of vertebrates first developed. Researchers found evidence that its skull was connected to the shoulder in a way that suggests the shoulder bones may have evolved from parts of the gill skeleton, supporting one of the main ideas about how fish fins and shoulders first appeared.[2]
Classification
In the phylogenetic analysis ran by Brazeau et al., M. turgenensis was found as the sister taxon of a clade formed by Entelognathus, Ramirosuarezia, Janusiscus and the crown gnathostomes. A cladogram simplified from their analysis is shown below:[1]
