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Sacabambaspis
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Sacabambaspis

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Sacabambaspis is an extinct genus of armored jawless fish which lived in the Ordovician period. Sacabambaspis inhabited shallow waters on the continental margins of the southern supercontinent Gondwana. The most complete specimens have been found in Bolivia, while armor fragments are also known from Argentina, Australia, and Oman. Sacabambaspis vaguely resembles a slender tadpole, with an oversized armor-plated head, flat body, and no discernible fins outside of its narrow tail. The eyes are closely spaced and positioned at the very front of the head, akin to car headlamps. It was about long i

Wikidata facts

Parent taxon
Arandaspida
Image
Sacabambaspis.gif
Show 5 more facts
taxon name
Sacabambaspis
taxon rank
genus
Commons category
Sacabambaspis
start time
461000000-
end time
450000000-
Sources (1)

via Wikidata · CC0

~13 min read

Encyclopedic overview

13 sections
Contents
  • History
  • Bolivian specimens
  • Other specimens
  • Internet attention
  • Description
  • Head shield
  • Body and tail
  • Classification
  • Paleobiology
  • Feeding
  • Sensory system
  • See also
  • References

Sacabambaspis is an extinct genus of armored jawless fish which lived in the Ordovician period. Sacabambaspis inhabited shallow waters on the continental margins of the southern supercontinent Gondwana. The most complete specimens have been found in Bolivia, while armor fragments are also known from Argentina, Australia, and Oman. Sacabambaspis vaguely resembles a slender tadpole, with an oversized armor-plated head, flat body, and no discernible fins outside of its narrow tail. The eyes are closely spaced and positioned at the very front of the head, akin to car headlamps. It was about long in total, including its distinctively thin scaly tail.

With many well-preserved specimens, Sacabambaspis is the best-known member of Arandaspida, a group of jawless fish found only in the Ordovician of Gondwana. Arandaspids were among the earliest members of the class Pteraspidomorpha, alongside a far more diverse group of jawless fish, the Silurian–Devonian heterostracans.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Sacabambaspis” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

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