Aleosteus

Aleosteus is an extinct monospecific genus of arthrodire placoderm fish of the Early Devonian period. The type species Aleosteus eganensis was described in 2000, and was found in the Late Emsian strate of the Sevy Dolomite Formation, in the Egan Range of east-central Nevada, USA. Almost complete fossils belong to juvenile and adult specimens and show a short and broad skull, posteriorly concave.[1]

Aleosteus
Temporal range: Early Devonian: Late Emsian,
Scientific classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: †Placodermi
Order: †Arthrodira
Genus: †Aleosteus
Johnson et al., 2000
Species
  • †Aleosteus eganensis Johnson et al., 2000 (type)

Etymology

The generic name Aleosteus comes from the Ancient Greco-Roman game "alea", a game of chance involving dice, as an allusion to Nevada's reputation for gambling. The species name eganensis is based on the type locality in the Egan Mountain Range in Nevada.[1]

Classification

Aleosteus is one of the more basal members of the order Arthrodira, closely related to Simblaspis, as shown in the cladogram below:[2]

Eurycaraspis incilis

Lunaspis broilii

Arthrodira
Actinolepidoidei
Phlyctaeniina

References
  1. Johnson, H.G.; Elliot, David; Wittke, James (2000). "A new actinolepid arthrodire (Class Placodermi) from the lower Devonian Sevy Dolomite, East-Centrai Nevada". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. 129: 241–266. doi:10.1006/zjls.1999.0206.
  2. Dupret, V.; Zhu, M. I. N.; Wang, J. N. Q. (2009). "The morphology of Yujiangolepis liujingensis (Placodermi, Arthrodira) from the Pragian of Guangxi (south China) and its phylogenetic significance" (PDF). Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. 157: 70. doi:10.1111/j.1096-3642.2009.00519.x.
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