A Fish from the Upper Cambrian of North America

Phosphatic dermal fragments of Anatolepis , interpreted as a heterostracan fish (class Agnatha), have been discovered in the Deadwood Formation of Late Cambrian age in northeastern Wyoming. This discovery extends back the age of the earliest known vertebrate fossils by approximately 40 million years...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science
Main Author: Repetski, John E.
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) 1978
Subjects:
Greenland
Spitzbergen
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.200.4341.529
https://www.science.org/doi/pdf/10.1126/science.200.4341.529
Description
Summary:Phosphatic dermal fragments of Anatolepis , interpreted as a heterostracan fish (class Agnatha), have been discovered in the Deadwood Formation of Late Cambrian age in northeastern Wyoming. This discovery extends back the age of the earliest known vertebrate fossils by approximately 40 million years. Other occurrences of Anatolepis in North America, Greenland, and Spitzbergen show that these fish had a widespread geographic distribution in Late Cambrian and Early Ordovician marine environments.

Similar Items