{"id":91,"date":"2021-10-22T13:19:09","date_gmt":"2021-10-22T02:49:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.flinders.edu.au\/vamp\/?page_id=91"},"modified":"2025-09-08T17:11:52","modified_gmt":"2025-09-08T07:41:52","slug":"fish","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.flinders.edu.au\/vamp\/fossils\/vertebrate-fossils\/fish\/","title":{"rendered":"Fish & early tetrapods"},"content":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_empty_space][vc_empty_space][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1\/2″][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

Fish & early tetrapods<\/span>
\n<\/strong><\/h1>\n

The earliest evidence of vertebrates come from early Cambrian deposits. Bony jawless fish achieved a worldwide distribution sometime during the Ordovician as evidenced from bone fragments and some of the first partially articulated fish fossils. The Silurian saw an explosion in diversity of jawless forms, as well as the first jawed fishes (gnathostomes).<\/p>\n

However, it is the Devonian that is known as the \u201cAge of Fishes\u201d for the explosion of aquatic vertebrates, with many of the modern lineages tracing their origins back to this time. Placoderms and lobe-finned fish were abundant during the Devonian, but a faunal turnover after the Devonian extinctions saw a switch towards a rise in cartilaginous and ray-finned fish diversity instead that has persisted to today.<\/p>\n

The largest group of ray-finned fish, the teleosts, as well as modern lineages of cartilaginous fishes such as sharks and rays originated during the Triassic-Jurassic Periods. Whereas other groups, such as the holocephalans, lungfish and coelacanths have origins stretching all the way back to the Devonian Period.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/2″][vc_empty_space][vc_single_image image=”97″ img_size=”full” style=”vc_box_border_circle_2″ border_color=”mulled_wine”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1\/5″][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

Cartilaginous fishes (sharks, rays & chimeras)<\/h3>\n

Gogoselachus lynbeazleyae<\/em><\/a>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/5″][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

Early gnathostomes (‘Placoderms’)<\/h3>\n

Bullerichthys fascidens <\/em>(coming soon)<\/p>\n

Camuropiscis <\/em>sp.<\/a><\/p>\n

Compagopiscis croucheri<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Westralichthys uwagedensis<\/em><\/a>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/5″][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

Ray-finned fishes (Actinopterygii)<\/h3>\n

Moythomasia durgaringa<\/em><\/a>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/5″][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

Lungfishes (Sarcopterygians)<\/h3>\n

Chirodipterus australis<\/em><\/a> (lungfish)<\/p>\n

Gogodipterus paddyensis <\/em><\/a>(lungfish)<\/p>\n

Griphognathus whitei<\/em> (lungfish)<\/p>\n

Rhinodipterus kimberleyensis <\/em><\/a>(lungfish)<\/p>\n

Xeradipterus hatcheri <\/em><\/a>(lungfish)[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/5″][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

Other lobe-finned fishes & tetrapod-like fishes (Sarcopterygians)<\/h3>\n

Harajicadectes zhumini<\/em> (tetrapodomorph)<\/p>\n

Ngamugawi wirngarri<\/a><\/em>\u00a0<\/a>(coelacanth)<\/p>\n

Onychodus jandemarrai<\/em><\/a> (onychodont)<\/p>\n

[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_empty_space][vc_empty_space][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1\/2″][vc_column_text] Fish & early tetrapods The earliest evidence of vertebrates come from early Cambrian deposits. Bony jawless fish achieved a worldwide distribution sometime during the Ordovician as evidenced from bone fragments and some of the first partially articulated fish fossils. The Silurian saw an explosion in diversity of jawless forms, as well as the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":0,"parent":207,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-91","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.flinders.edu.au\/vamp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/91","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.flinders.edu.au\/vamp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.flinders.edu.au\/vamp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.flinders.edu.au\/vamp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/43"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.flinders.edu.au\/vamp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.flinders.edu.au\/vamp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/91\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.flinders.edu.au\/vamp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.flinders.edu.au\/vamp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}