Late Devonian fresh-water fishes from the western United States
Abstract
ANTIARCHIThe peculiar armored placoderm, Bothriolepis, is a characteristic element of Late Devonian fresh-water faunas throughout much of the world.It is common in the western United States, but its remains are usually fragmentary or poorly preserved, so that identi- fication is difficult.Two species are to be distinguished in this area.Bothriolepis coloradensis Eastman: The original description of this species by Eastman in 1904 was based on material collected by Cross in southwestern Colorado.Stensio (1931, p. 11; 1948, p. 224) concluded from Eastman's figures with some justification that it did not belong to Bothriolepis, but to the Remigolepidae.East- man's figures, however, are quite inadequate to characterize this form, and a study of the type, as well as new material collected for Chicago Natural History Museum, clearly shows that this is Bothrio- lepis and possibly a valid species.Stensio referred this species to the Remigolepidae because East- man's figures (1904, figs. 1, 4) suggest that the pectoral fin was not divided into two articulated segments.The type (U.S.N.M. no.16852) is a ventral trunk shield exhibiting the inner surface, with fragments of both pectoral appendages in place.The more com- plete appendage, that of the left side, does not preserve the articula- tion, but shows quite convincingly that one was present between
Local Knowledge Graph (3 entities)
Related Works
Items connected by shared entities, co-authorship, citations, or semantic similarity.