Andreolepis
Andreolepis is an extinct genus of prehistoric fish, which lived around 420 million years ago. It was described by Walter Gross in 1968 based on scales found in the Hemse Formation in Gotland, Sweden. It is placed in the monogeneric family Andreolepididae and is generally regarded as a primitive member of the class Actinopterygii based on its ganoid scale structure; however some new research regards it as a stem group of osteichthyans.
Andreolepis Temporal range: Pridoli ~ | |
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Scientific classification | |
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Family: | Andreolepididae Märss, 2001 |
Genus: | Andreolepis Gross, 1968 |
Type species | |
Andreolepis hedei Gross, 1968 | |
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Researchers have used microremains of an Andreolepsis to determine its origins and found that it dated back to the late Silurian.
Andreolepis was capable of shedding its teeth by basal resorption, which is considered a rather primitive mode of tooth replacement. This makes it informative about the evolution of teeth.
Fossil remains are mostly limited to scales, platelets and fragmented bones. At first only the species A. hedei was described. Scales, platelets and a spine from the Central Urals in Russia have thereafter been assigned to a new species, A. petri, due to differences in fossil morphology. Remains have been found in Russia, and A. hedei fossils have also been uncovered in the Hemse Formation of Sweden, the Himmiste Beds Formation of Estonia, Latvia, and the West Khatanzeya Formation of Nova Zemlya, Russia. Other fossils were found in Great Britain, the former of which it was originally described from. Andreolepis fossils have also recently been recovered from Western Australia and were identified as Andreolepis sp. aff. A. petri due to the resemblance to A. petri scales.