Placodermi

Placoderms are vertebrate animals of the class Placodermi, an extinct group of prehistoric fish known from Paleozoic fossils during the Silurian and the Devonian periods. While their endoskeletons are mainly cartilaginous, their head and thorax were covered by articulated armoured plates, and the rest of the body was scaled or naked depending on the species.

Placodermi

User:Haplochromis · CC BY-SA 3.0 · 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
Also called
armour-plated fishPBDB
Sits inside
GnathostomataPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB
Life habit
nektonicPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB

Time the record covers

At least 227 million years on record.

The record covers at least 432.9 Mya to 205.7 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 438.6 Mya to 201.4 Mya.

Ordovician — about 0 of 1034 occurrencesSilurian — about 9 of 1034 occurrencesSilurianDevonian — about 1016 of 1034 occurrencesDevonianCarboniferous — about 8 of 1034 occurrencesCarboniferousPermian — about 0 of 1034 occurrencesEarly Triassic — about 0 of 1034 occurrencesMiddle Triassic — about 0 of 1034 occurrencesLate Triassic — about 1 of 1034 occurrencesLate TriassicEarly Jurassic — about 0 of 1034 occurrences443–435 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences435–427 Mya — about 3 occurrences427–419 Mya — about 17 occurrences419–410 Mya — about 111 occurrences410–402 Mya — about 59 occurrences402–394 Mya — about 83 occurrences394–386 Mya — about 245 occurrences386–378 Mya — about 263 occurrences378–369 Mya — about 120 occurrences369–361 Mya — about 93 occurrences361–353 Mya — about 32 occurrences353–345 Mya — about 2 occurrences345–336 Mya — about 1 occurrence336–328 Mya — about 1 occurrence328–320 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences320–312 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences312–304 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences304–295 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences213–205 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences205–197 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences432.9 Mya205.7 Mya443 Mya197 Mya

1,034 occurrences of Placodermi on record, most of them in the Devonian. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group, and the chart stops with its fossils rather than at the present. 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

1,034 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

247 formations

Gogo — 18.62°S, 125.95°EGogo — 18.68°S, 125.71°EGogo — 18.30°S, 126.50°EGogo — 18.16°S, 124.30°EKellwasserkalk — 51.08°N, 9.13°EKellwasserkalk — 51.12°N, 9.15°ERousay — 59.10°N, 3.09°WRousay — 59.01°N, 3.01°WRousay — 59.01°N, 2.92°WRousay — 58.99°N, 2.80°WRousay — 58.74°N, 2.93°WRousay — 59.20°N, 3.08°WRousay — 59.13°N, 3.03°WRousay — 59.17°N, 3.00°WRousay — 59.28°N, 3.02°WRousay — 59.33°N, 3.05°WRousay — 59.30°N, 2.90°WRousay — 59.37°N, 2.89°WRousay — 59.36°N, 2.41°WRousay — 59.30°N, 2.44°WRousay — 59.07°N, 2.80°WRousay — 58.89°N, 2.82°WRousay — 58.78°N, 2.93°WRousay — 59.25°N, 2.88°WRousay — 59.19°N, 2.70°WAztec Siltstone — 77.88°S, 159.61°EAztec Siltstone — 78.16°S, 159.10°EAztec Siltstone — 78.43°S, 158.68°EAztec Siltstone — 78.54°S, 158.43°EAztec Siltstone — 77.53°S, 160.19°EAztec Siltstone — 77.81°S, 160.64°EAztec Siltstone — 78.63°S, 159.45°EAztec Siltstone — 78.58°S, 159.54°EAztec Siltstone — 78.53°S, 158.32°EXitun — 25.49°N, 103.80°EDniester — 49.01°N, 25.43°EDniester — 48.86°N, 25.48°EDniester — 48.91°N, 25.59°EDniester — 48.83°N, 25.57°EDniester — 48.75°N, 25.60°EDniester — 49.06°N, 25.39°EDniester — 49.19°N, 25.37°EDniester — 48.81°N, 25.35°EDniester — 49.02°N, 25.18°EBurtnieki — 58.10°N, 25.55°EAruküla — 59.37°N, 25.08°EHunsrück Slate — 49.89°N, 7.47°EHunsrück Slate — 49.83°N, 7.37°EAruküla — 57.55°N, 25.28°EBindaree — 37.17°S, 146.65°EBindaree — 37.17°S, 146.55°EBindaree — 37.76°S, 147.11°ETaemas — 34.96°S, 148.81°ETaemas — 35.04°S, 148.66°ETaemas — 35.11°S, 148.67°ENarva — 57.55°N, 25.29°ELybster Flagstone — 58.47°N, 3.46°WLybster Flagstone — 57.83°N, 4.18°WLybster Flagstone — 57.68°N, 2.34°WLybster Flagstone — 57.64°N, 3.03°WLybster Flagstone — 57.68°N, 4.03°WOhio Shale — 40.14°N, 80.03°WOhio Shale — 41.41°N, 82.60°WOhio Shale — 41.45°N, 81.77°WNarva — 59.38°N, 28.19°EZhongning — 37.65°N, 105.99°EZhongning — 37.18°N, 106.05°EZhongning — 37.99°N, 105.70°EZhongning — 37.25°N, 106.07°EZhongning — 33.30°N, 111.48°ELepel — 53.07°N, 28.70°ELepel — 53.03°N, 29.29°ELepel — 53.10°N, 30.29°ELepel — 53.16°N, 30.80°ELepel — 53.32°N, 30.37°ELepel — 55.41°N, 27.19°EHunter Siltstone — 33.73°S, 148.35°EHunter Siltstone — 33.74°S, 148.34°EHunter Siltstone — 33.75°S, 148.34°EOgre — 57.00°N, 22.61°EOgre — 57.03°N, 22.78°EOgre — 57.00°N, 21.62°EOgre — 57.43°N, 25.91°EOgre — 56.36°N, 24.25°EOgre — 56.71°N, 24.84°EOgre — 56.70°N, 24.88°EBeartooth Butte — 44.95°N, 109.62°WBeartooth Butte — 44.87°N, 108.07°WCatskill — 41.33°N, 77.08°WCatskill — 41.81°N, 77.78°WCatskill — 41.43°N, 77.10°WCatskill — 41.34°N, 77.68°WXishancun — 25.49°N, 103.80°EJiucheng — 25.53°N, 102.40°E

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The named rock units Placodermi has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 223 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 131 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Placodermi and its relatives

Devonian

Where Placodermi and its relatives were recorded in the Devonian.

Found in the same rock

1,755 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 481 sites for Placodermi, and this reads 240 of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

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

312 references

Each of the 1,034 occurrences 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. 300 further references are not listed. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content2

Picture of Placodermi

Credit
User:Haplochromis
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Credit
Senator
Licence
CC Attribution
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were 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 itGnathostomata through timeFormations of the DevonianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (M'Coy 1848)