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- Title
Feature: Swimming with… Devonian fish.
- Authors
Morrissey, Lance B.; Janvier, Philippe; Braddy, Simon J.; Bennett, John P.; Marriott, Susan B.; Tarrant, Peter R.
- Abstract
Armoured jawless fish, or ‘ostracoderms’, lived 450–360 million years ago, and display unusual morphologies, unlike any modern fish group. Since they left no living descendants, their mode of swimming has, until recently, remained speculative, although this is a crucial question as the first true pectoral fins evolved within the ‘ostracoderms’. The discovery of the oldest-known fish trails, from the Early Devonian (400 million year old) ‘Lower Old Red Sandstone’ of south-east Wales offers new insights into the swimming behaviour of these early fish, notably the osteostracan ‘ostracoderms’ (or cephalaspids), whose horseshoe-shaped head and paddle-shaped pectoral fins have remained a functional riddle.
- Subjects
RARE fishes; FISH locomotion; ANIMAL swimming; FISH anatomy; RARE vertebrates; ANIMAL morphology; OSTEOSTRACI
- Publication
Geology Today, 2006, Vol 22, Issue 2, p66
- ISSN
0266-6979
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1111/j.1365-2451.2006.00555.x