Gemuendina stuertzi

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Placodermi

Order:

Family:

Genus:

  • Gemuendina

Species:

  • G. stuertzi

Fossil_range: Early Devonian


Gemuendina stuertzi was an early placoderm of the order Rhenanida, of the seas of Early Devonian Germany. Gemuendina resembled a scaly ray with a pair of staring eyes, a pug-nose, and an upturned mouth. This leads virtually all artists who reconstruct it to give the creature a quizzical, almost shocked expression.

Unlike most other placoderms, such as the Antiarchs, or the Arthrodires, Gemuendina and its three other known relatives had armor made up of a mosaic of unfused bony plates. Also unlike other placoderms, it did not have the characteristic tooth plates of placoderms. Instead, it had star-shaped tubercle scales that allowed it to pick out shellfish and echinoderms out of the sediment, and crush them.


References

Paleos Rhenanida [1]

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