Austroptyctodus

Austroptyctodus gardineri is a small ptyctodontid placoderm fish from the Upper Devonian Gogo Formation of Western Australia. First described by Miles & Young (1977)[1] as a new species of the German genus Ctenurella. Long (1997)[2] redescribed the German material and found major differences in the skull roof pattern so assigned it to a new genus, Austroptyctodus. This genus lacks spinal plates and has Ptyctodus-like toothplates.

Austroptyctodus
Temporal range: Late Frasnian
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: †Placodermi
Order: †Ptyctodontida
Family: †Ptyctodontidae
Genus: †Austroptyctodus
Long, 1997
Species:
†A. gardineri
Binomial name
†Austroptyctodus gardineri
Long, 1997
Synonyms
  • Ctenurella gardineri

The most significant discovery about Austroptyctodus is that one specimen depicts a female pregnant with 3 unborn embryos inside her, showing that like Materpiscis, also from Gogo, this genus was a live bearer that reproduced through internal fertilization.[3]

Feeding habits

Austroptyctodus fossil individuals have ostracods recovered in the abdominal region. These ostracods were related to nocturnal ones, suggesting it hunted at night.[4]

References
  1. Miles, R.S. & Young, G.C. 1977. Placoderm interrelationships reconsidered in the light of new ptyctodontids from Gogo Western Australia. Linn. Soc. Symp. Series 4: 123-198.
  2. Long, J.A. 1997. Ptyctodontid fishes from the Late Devonian Gogo Formation, Western Australia, with a revision of the German genus Ctenurella Orvig 1960. Geodiversitas 19: 515-555.
  3. Long, J.A., Trinajstic, K.,Young, G.C. & Senden, T. 2008. Live birth in the Devonian period. Nature 453: 650-653.
  4. https://www.lyellcollection.org/doi/full/10.1144/jgs2021-105


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