Psammosteidae

Psammosteidae is an extinct family of flattened, benthic heterostracan vertebrates that lived in marine and estuary environments in Europe, Russia & North America. They arose during the Early Devonian, with the first known genus, Drepanaspis from the Hunsrück lagerstätte. The Psammosteids were the only heterostracans that survived the Upper Frasnian extinction event during the Late Devonian, dying out in the extinction event at the very end of the Devonian.

Psammosteidae

The original uploader was Apokryltaros at English Wikipedia . · CC BY 2.5 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
PteraspidoideiPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Chordata

Time the record covers

At least 87 million years on record.

The record covers at least 410.62 Mya to 323.4 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 413.02 Mya to 298.9 Mya.

Devonian — about 103 of 105 occurrencesDevonianCarboniferous — about 2 of 105 occurrencesCarboniferousPermian — about 0 of 105 occurrences415–411 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences411–407 Mya — about 1 occurrence407–403 Mya — about 1 occurrence403–399 Mya — about 1 occurrence399–396 Mya — about 3 occurrences396–392 Mya — about 5 occurrences392–388 Mya — about 12 occurrences388–384 Mya — about 34 occurrences384–380 Mya — about 27 occurrences380–376 Mya — about 8 occurrences376–372 Mya — about 9 occurrences372–368 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences368–364 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences364–360 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences360–356 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences324–320 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences320–316 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences316–312 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences312–308 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences308–305 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences305–301 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences301–297 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences410.62 Mya323.4 Mya415 Mya297 Mya

105 occurrences of Psammosteidae on record, most of them in the Devonian. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

105 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

29 formations

Aruküla — 57.55°N, 25.28°EBurtnieki — 58.10°N, 25.55°EAruküla — 59.37°N, 25.08°EYam-Tesovo — 58.89°N, 30.56°EVstrechnaya — 79.50°N, 96.00°EGauja — 58.01°N, 25.38°EGauja — 57.27°N, 25.11°EVatutin — 79.50°N, 96.00°EAmata — 57.06°N, 24.03°EAmata — 56.63°N, 25.46°ETordalen — 78.67°N, 16.22°EPļaviņas — 59.89°N, 32.80°ELepel — 53.07°N, 28.70°ELepel — 53.32°N, 30.37°ELepel — 55.41°N, 27.19°EGremyashchij — 79.50°N, 96.00°ENarva — 59.38°N, 28.19°EGorodok — 55.46°N, 29.98°EHunsrück Slate — 49.89°N, 7.47°EMatusevich — 79.50°N, 96.00°EVavilov — 79.50°N, 96.00°EAmata — 58.82°N, 29.98°EPärnu — 58.39°N, 24.50°EPolotsk — 51.88°N, 26.85°ELan' — 52.16°N, 27.30°EHunsruck Slate — 49.85°N, 7.39°EWahnbach — 50.94°N, 7.29°EZoologdalen/Andersson Land — 73.31°N, 24.33°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Psammosteidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 5 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 37 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Psammosteidae and its relatives

Devonian

Where Psammosteidae and its relatives were recorded in the Devonian.

Found in the same rock

352 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 56 sites for Psammosteidae, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

26 references

Each of the 105 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. 14 further references are not listed. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Psammosteidae

Credit
The original uploader was Apokryltaros at English Wikipedia .
Licence
CC BY 2.5
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan was found. Smithsonian Open Access, MorphoSource and Sketchfab were all searched.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itPteraspidoidei through timeFormations of the DevonianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Traquair 1896