Materpiscis attenboroughi

Materpiscis is a genus of ptyctodontid placoderm from the Late Devonian located at the Gogo Formation of Western Australia. Known from only one specimen, it is unique in having an unborn embryo present inside the mother, with remarkable preservation of a mineralised placental feeding structure. This makes Materpiscis the oldest known vertebrate to show viviparity, or giving birth to live young.

Materpiscis attenboroughi

Entelognathus · CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
MaterpiscisPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Placodermi
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Placodermi
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Placodermi

Time the record covers

At most 3.4 million years on record.

The one occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 382.31 Mya and 379 Mya, which is a dating window rather than a span.

Devonian — about 1 of 1 occurrenceDevonian382–382 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences382–382 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences382–382 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences382–382 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences382–382 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences382–382 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences382–381 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences381–381 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences381–381 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences381–381 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences381–381 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences381–381 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences381–381 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences381–380 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences380–380 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences380–380 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences380–380 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences380–380 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences380–380 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences380–380 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences380–379 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences379–379 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences379–379 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences379–379 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences382.81 Mya378.5 Mya

1 occurrence of Materpiscis attenboroughi on record, most of them in the Devonian. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

1 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

1 formation

Gogo — 18.68°S, 125.71°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Materpiscis attenboroughi has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.

Materpiscis attenboroughi and its relatives

Devonian

Where Materpiscis attenboroughi and its relatives were recorded in the Devonian.

Found in the same rock

5 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 1 site for Materpiscis attenboroughi, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

1 reference

Each of the 1 occurrence read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Each entry links to doi.org. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Materpiscis attenboroughi

Credit
Entelognathus
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Materpiscis attenboroughi was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access was not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itMaterpiscis through timeFormations of the DevonianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Long et al. 2008