Amphiaspididae
| Amphiaspidae Temporal range: Early Devonian
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| Amphiaspis argo reconstruction | |
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| Phylum: | Chordata |
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| Family: | Amphiaspididae Obruchev, 1936
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Amphiaspididae is a
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.
Taxonomy
Amphiaspis
Amphiaspis argo is the type species of Amphiaspidida, and is known from an incomplete set of pillow-shaped cephalothoracic armor. The armor also appears to have a pattern of lateral sensory line canals.
Amphoraspis
Amphoraspis stellata has a broad, rounded armor that looks vaguely like a pot or vase.
References