HIERARCHICAL CLASSIFICATION OF THE SUPERCLASS ANASPIDOMORPHI+

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SUPERCLASS ANASPIDOMORPHI LINKS

The following descriptions come from Benton (2005) and Nelson (2006). The structure of the following system is also based, in part, on the phylogenetic treatment by Mikko’s Phylogeny Web (from the Finnish Museum of Natural History).

SUPERCLASS ANASPIDOMORPHI+
The superclass has a single class with two orders.
- CLASS ANASPIDA
- Anaspids were fishes of freshwater and up to 15cm long. They were covered by characteristic bony scales, no large head shields, but some did have bony scutes and plates. Their bodies were laterally compressed and the mouth was terminal. The in-line fins were reduced to an anal fin and two lobes of the caudal fin, which was hypocercal (i.e. the vertebral column bent down into the lower lobe). The fin of the upper lobe of the caudal might have been the posterior dorsal fin. They had paired pectoral spines in addition to in-line fins. They had separate gill openings (up to 15 pairs), well back of the eyes.
- Benton (2005) groups the the anaspids and thelodonts together into a single class. I have followed the system of Nelson (2006) in which the anaspids and thelodonts are given superclass status each.
- Silurian through Devonian
- UNASSIGNED GENERA:
- Schidiosteus, Rytidolepis, Vesikulepis, Maurylepis, Silmalepis, Septendrionalis, Livilepis, Hoburgilepis, Tahulalepis, Spokoinolepis, Manbrookia, Ruhnulepis.
  - ORDER ANASPIDIFORMES (BIRKENIAE)
  - UNASSIGNED GENERA
  - Pharyngolepis, Pterygolepis.
    - FAMILY LASANIIDAE
    - Lasanius.
    - FAMILY RAMSAASALEPIDIDAE
    - Ramsaasalepis.
    - FAMILY BIRKENIIDAE
    - Vilkitskilepis, Birkenia, Ctenopleuron, Saarolepis.

LITERATURE CITED

Benton, M. J. 2005. Vertebrate Paleontology. Third Edition. Blackwell Publishing, Malden, MA.

Janvier, P. 1996a. Early Vertebrates. Oxford Monographs in Geology and Geophysics, 33. Oxford University Press. Oxford. pp. 393.

Janvier, P. 2008a. Early jawless vertebrates and cyclostome origins. Zoological Science. 25: 1045-1056.

Janvier, P. and M. Arsenault. 2007. The anatomy of Euphanerops longaevus Woodward, 1900, an anaspid-like jawless vertebrate from the Upper devonian of Miguasha, Quebec, Canada. Geodiversitas. 29(1): 143-216.

Nelson, J. S. 2006. Fishes of the World. 4th edition. John Wiley and Sons, Inc. New York.

By Jack R. Holt. Last revised: 01/17/2013

HIERARCHICAL CLASSIFICATION OF THE SUPERCLASS ANASPIDOMORPHI+

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