Haikouichthys
Sign in to saveHaikouichthys is an extinct genus of primitive jawless fish that lived during the Cambrian period, 518 million years ago, in what is now the Yunnan Province of China. Alongside Myllokunmingia and Zhongjianichthys, it is considered to be the earliest known vertebrate animal in the fossil record.
Article
8 sectionsContents
- Description
- Head
- Eyes
- Body
- Paleoecology
- See also
- References
- External links
Haikouichthys is an extinct genus of primitive jawless fish that lived during the Cambrian period, 518 million years ago, in what is now the Yunnan Province of China. Alongside Myllokunmingia and Zhongjianichthys, it is considered to be the earliest known vertebrate animal in the fossil record.
The type species, Haikouichthys ercaicunensis, was first described in 1999 in addition to its confamilial, Myllokunmingia, and more than 500 specimens were referred to this taxon as of 2003. The holotype was found in the Yuanshan member of the Qiongzhusi Formation in the 'Eoredlichia' Zone near Ercai Village in the Haikou Subdistrict (not to be confused with the city of Haikou in Hainan) of Xishan, Kunming, hence its specific name, which means "Haikou fish from Ercaicun". The fossil (along with Myllokunmingia's holotype) was recovered among the Chengjiang fauna, in one of a series of Lagerstätten sites where thousands of exquisitely preserved soft-bodied fossils have already been found.