Quick Search:    advanced search

GSW Home   GeoRef Home   My GSW Alerts   Contact GSW   About GSW   Journals List   Help

Geological Magazine

This Article Figures Only Full Text Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Google Scholar Articles by TRINAJSTIC, K. Articles by LONG, J. A. GeoRef GeoRef Citation

A new genus and species of Ptyctodont (Placodermi) from the Late Devonian Gneudna Formation, Western Australia, and an analysis of Ptyctodont phylogeny

KATE TRINAJSTIC^* and JOHN A. LONG^,

^* WA Organic and Isotope Geochemistry Centre, Department of Applied Chemistry, Curtin University of Technology, Bentley, Western Australia 6845, Australia
Museum Victoria, PO Box 666, Melbourne, Victoria 3001, Australia
Research School of Earth Sciences, The Australian National University, Camberra 0200, Australia

^* Author for correspondence: K.Trinajstic{at}curtin.edu.au

An almost complete but predominantly disarticulated ptyctodont fish, Kimbryanodus williamburyensis n. gen., n.sp. from the Late Devonian Gneudna Formation, is described. The fossils occur as three-dimensionally preserved isolated plates, and this has allowed the reconstruction of the fish. A taxonomic revision of the ptyctodonts was undertaken based on recently described Australian taxa and new reconstructions of Australian, American and European specimens. The phylogenetic analysis supports a threefold division of the ptyctodonts, with Rhamphodopsis being the most basal taxon and the other ptyctodonts divided into those possessing a median dorsal spine, spinal plate and simple V-shaped overlap of the anterior lateral and anterior dorsolateral plates and those taxa which do not.

Key Words: ptyctodont • phylogeny • Gneudna Formation • Devonian • Australia