Description

Heterostraci
Fish
Lower Devonian (Pridolian)
Dniester Formation
Zalishchyky, Podolia, Ukraine

44mm and 47mm shields on 127mm slab.

Here are two shields of an unidentified armored jawless fish of the extinct Subclass, Heterostraci, aka the heterostracans.  The shield is composed of bone and dentine, protecting the head and part of the body. It is all that is usually found of an individual heterostracan. Over 300 species are known with the group most diverse during the Silurian.
They died out by the end of the Devonian.

This specimen is for the fish collector looking for an affordable example of one of the early Paleozoic jawless fish groups. It’s also for the advanced vertebrate collector looking for something representing the stage in vertebrate evolution not long after the development of a mineralized skeleton.