Amphoraspis

Amphiaspis argo Temporal range: Early Devonian
Amphoraspis stellata reconstruction
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Pteraspidomorphi
Subclass:	Heterostraci
Order:	Cyathaspidiformes
(unranked):	Amphiaspidida
Superfamily:	Amphiaspidoidei
Family:	Amphiaspididae
Genus:	Amphoraspis
Species:	A. stellata
Binomial name
Amphoraspis stellata Novitskaya & Karatayute, 1989

Amphoraspis stellata is an amphiaspidid heterostracan in the family Amphiaspididae. Its fossils are restricted to early Devonian-aged marine strata of the Taimyr Peninsula, Siberia. A. stellata, as with all other amphiaspidids, is thought to have been a benthic filter feeder that lived on top of, or buried just below the surface of the substrate of hypersaline lagoon-bottoms.

So far, A. stellata is known from at least one, 14 centimeter-long, broad and dorsally rounded cephalothoracic armor that is shaped vaguely like, as the generic name suggests, an amphora.^[1] The animal had small, possibly degenerate eyes that were flanked laterally by a small, crescent-shaped branchial opening. The small eyes, in turn, laterally flank a small, slit-shaped mouth at the center of the anterior-most end of the cephalothorax. The external surface of the armor has a unique micro-ornamentation of a pattern of star-like shapes.

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