| Austroptyctodus Temporal range: Late Frasnian
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Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | †Placodermi |
| Order: | †Ptyctodontida |
| Family: | †Ptyctodontidae |
| Genus: | †Austroptyctodus Long, 1997 |
| Species: | †A. gardineri
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| Binomial name | |
| †Austroptyctodus gardineri Long, 1997
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| Synonyms | |
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Austroptyctodus gardineri is a small ptyctodontid placoderm fish from the Upper Devonian Gogo Formation of Western Australia. First described by Miles & Young (1977)[1] as a new species of the German genus Ctenurella. Long (1997)[2] redescribed the German material and found major differences in the skull roof pattern so assigned it to a new genus, Austroptyctodus. This genus lacks spinal plates and has Ptyctodus-like toothplates.
The most significant discovery about Austroptyctodus is that one specimen depicts a female pregnant with 3 unborn embryos inside her, showing that like Materpiscis, also from Gogo, this genus was a live bearer that reproduced through internal fertilization.[3]
Feeding habits
Austroptyctodus fossil individuals have ostracods recovered in the abdominal region. These ostracods were related to nocturnal ones, suggesting it hunted at night.[4]
References
- ^ Miles, R.S. & Young, G.C. 1977. Placoderm interrelationships reconsidered in the light of new ptyctodontids from Gogo Western Australia. Linn. Soc. Symp. Series 4: 123-198.
- ^ Long, J.A. 1997. Ptyctodontid fishes from the Late Devonian Gogo Formation, Western Australia, with a revision of the German genus Ctenurella Orvig 1960. Geodiversitas 19: 515-555.
- ^ Long, J.A., Trinajstic, K.,Young, G.C. & Senden, T. 2008. Live birth in the Devonian period. Nature 453: 650-653.
- ^ https://www.lyellcollection.org/doi/full/10.1144/jgs2021-105
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This page was last edited on 19 April 2023, at 23:38