Jagorina pandora

From Palaeos.org

o Placodermi
`==o Acanthothoraci (paraphyletic)
   `--o--Radotina kosorensis
      `--o RHENANIDA
         |?-Ohioaspis
         |--Asterosteus stenocephalus
         |--Bolivosteus chacomensis
         |--Gemuendina (Broiliina) stuertzi
         `--Jagorina pandora

The rhenanid placoderm, Jagorina pandora, the ptyctodont placoderm Rhamphodopsis threiplandi, and the cheirurid trilobite Cheirurus insignis, of Mid Devonian Germany.

Jagorina pandora ("Jagorin's Gift") was a rhenanid placoderm of Mid Devonian Germany. As with other rhenanids, it was a flattened, skate-like fish protected in an armor made up of unfused tubercles, and preyed on other, smaller fish by ambushing them from the sea bottom.

Despite the fact that the only specimen being a single, uncrushed skull, or perhaps because of it, J. pandora is the second most studied rhenanid, after Gemuendina stuertzi. It is from Jagorina that the details of the skull anatomy of rhenanids are known. Although scientists know of the overall anatomy and bodyplan of rhenanids because of G. stuertzi, very little information has been gleaned from the skulls of those specimens, as they all have been greatly flattened.

External links

• Palaeos Rhenanida

References

• Janvier, Philippe. Early Vertebrates Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, 1998. ISBN 0-19-854047-7
• Long, John A. The Rise of Fishes: 500 Million Years of Evolution Baltimore: The John Hopkins University Press, 1996. ISBN 0-8018-5438-5