Hardistiella

From Palaeos

Hardistiella is the oldest known lamprey. Lampreys are jawless vertebrates that lack, primitively, any sort of bone tissue or teeth. Modern lampreys have two different life styles. Most are filter feeders, but some have an adult stage in which they predate upon fish by means of sharp cornified rasping projections upon a “tongue”. Hardistiella shows no evidence of rasping structures, but we do not know whether they are mature or not.

BILL 061113