Armoured fishes
In our palaeobiological collections, we have an interesting fauna of fish fossils from Podolia, western Ukraine.
This fish fauna is from the Devonian period (419-359 million years ago) and is found in reddish sandstones, the so-called Old Red Sandstone. Over the past 150 years, vertebrate fossils have been found along the banks of the Dniester River. Our collections include 4,000 fish from this area.
Most Devonian fish were more or less armoured, with large head plates and hard scales on the body, and it is these parts that are found as fossils. The majority of our collections from Podolia are made up of jawless fish. Most are heterostracans, but osteostracans and a few thelodonts are also included.
Fishes with jaws
In the collections there are also fishes with jaws such as sharks like placoderms and acanthodians.
The placoderms and many of the jawless fishes became extinct during the Devonian, the acanthodians became extinct in the Permian.
The image at the top of the page depicts the head shield a jawless heterostracan, Protaspis arnelli, from Kujdanow, Ukraine, with the "snout" pointing to the right. Photo: Vivi Vajda