Abstract
The placoderms were a diverse group of ancient armoured fishes and it’s widely believed that they are ancestral to virtually all vertebrates alive today, including humans.
Placoderms dominated aquatic environments for 70 million years until they suddenly went extinct some 360 million years ago, paving the way for modern bony fish (osteichthyans) and sharks and rays (chondrichthyans).
The earliest vertebrates were jawless fishes, and placoderms were among the earliest fishes to evolve jaws, an adaptive breakthrough that contributed to their rapid success.
Several studies have strongly argued that placoderms are the direct ancestors of all other jawed vertebrates, a huge branch of the tree of life that includes mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and most fish.
Original language | English |
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Pages | 1-5 |
Number of pages | 5 |
Specialist publication | The Conversation |
Publisher | The Conversation |
Publication status | Published - 6 Dec 2016 |
Keywords
- Evolution
- Fish
- Palaeontology
- Human evolution