Ptyctodontida

The ptyctodontids ("folded-teeth") are placoderms of the order Ptyctodontida, containing the family Ptyctodontidae. With their big heads, big eyes, reduced armor and long bodies, the ptyctodontids bore a superficial resemblance to modern day chimaeras (Holocephali). Their armor was reduced to a pattern of small plates around the head and neck. Like the extinct and related acanthothoracids, and the living and unrelated holocephalians, most of the ptyctodontids are thought to have lived near the sea bottom and preyed on shellfish.

Ptyctodontida

Apokryltaros at English Wikipedia · CC BY 2.5 · 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
PlacodermiPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Placodermi
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Placodermi
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Placodermi

Time the record covers

At least 15 million years on record.

The record covers at least 387.95 Mya to 372.15 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 393.47 Mya to 358.86 Mya.

Devonian — about 11 of 11 occurrencesDevonianCarboniferous — about 0 of 11 occurrences394–393 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences393–392 Mya — about 2 occurrences392–391 Mya — about 2 occurrences391–389 Mya — about 2 occurrences389–388 Mya — about 2 occurrences388–387 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences385–383 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences383–382 Mya — about 1 occurrence382–381 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences381–380 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences380–379 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences379–377 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences377–376 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences376–375 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences375–374 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences374–373 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences373–371 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences371–370 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences370–369 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences369–368 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences368–367 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences367–365 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences365–364 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences364–363 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences363–362 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences362–361 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences361–359 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences359–358 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences387.95 Mya372.15 Mya394.2 Mya358.2 Mya

11 occurrences of Ptyctodontida 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

11 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

7 formations

Lybster Flagstone — 58.47°N, 3.46°WLybster Flagstone — 57.83°N, 4.18°WLybster Flagstone — 57.64°N, 3.03°WNarva — 59.38°N, 28.19°EGorodok — 55.46°N, 29.98°ELan' — 52.16°N, 27.30°EWitpoort — 33.32°S, 26.54°EMartin — 35.25°N, 111.61°WKush Yeilagh — 36.85°N, 55.35°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Ptyctodontida has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 2 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Ptyctodontida and its relatives

Devonian

Where Ptyctodontida and its relatives were recorded in the Devonian.

Found in the same rock

118 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 11 sites for Ptyctodontida, and this reads all 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

7 references

Each of the 11 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. 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 content1

Picture of Ptyctodontida

Credit
Apokryltaros at English Wikipedia
Licence
CC BY 2.5
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Ptyctodontida was found in Sketchfab.

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 itPlacodermi through timeFormations of the DevonianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Gross 1932