Wacky Days of September. THE DEVONIAN Vertebrates

Vertebrates
Conodonts (recently recognized as toothlike elements of very primitive eel-like vertebrates) are abundant in many Devonian marine facies. Conodonts had perhaps their greatest diversification during the Late Devonian and are of major importance for the correlation of rock layers. More than 40 conodont zones are recognized within the Devonian, and these provide a high-resolution biostraphic framework for the period.

Many groups of Devonian fishes were heavily armoured, and this has led to their good representation in the fossil record. Fish remains are widespread in the Old Red Sandstone rocks of Europe, especially in the Welsh borderland and Scottish areas of Britain; these are mostly associated with freshwater or estuarine deposits. In other areas marine fishes are known, and some of these, such as Dunkleosteus (Dinichthys) from the Upper Devonian Period of Ohio, U.S., may have reached 9 metres (30 feet) in length.


The earliest fishes, comprising the agnathans, were without jaws and presumably were mud eaters and scavengers. These types are usually called ostracoderms. Some, such as the osteostracan cephalaspids, had broad, platelike armour of varied form; the brain and nerve structures in some of these are well known. The anaspids also were covered with armour in the form of scales. The heterostracans, which include the oldest known fishes, have an anterior armour basically of upper (dorsal) and lower (ventral) plates; Pteraspis is an example. The Early Devonian saw the entry of jawed forms or gnathostomes, and the armoured forms of these, the placoderms, characterize the epoch. The arthrodires, which had a hinged frontal armour in two portions, and the grotesque antiarchs belong here. The close of the Devonian saw the diminution and extinction of most of these groups, but several other groups continued and have a significant later history.

Sharklike fishes, the chondrichthians, have been found in the Middle Devonian. The bony fishes, or osteichthians of current classification, include the climatioid acanthodeans, which had appeared before the period began, but the lungfishes (Dipnoi), the coelacanths, and the rhipidistians made their first appearance during this time. The last group is thought to have given rise to the four-footed amphibians as well as to all other higher groups of vertebrates.