Australia: The Land Where Time Began

A biography of the Australian continent 

Rhenanids

In the Rhenanids the body is covered by small tesserae rather than large plates, the more typical armour of Placoderms. A specimen from the deposits of Lower Devonian age in Germany, Femuendina, had a very flattened body and large pectoral fins, with a narrow whip-like tail. It had the superficial appearance of a ray. Benton suggests it may have swum by undulations of its pectoral fins.

In the midline there are large bony plates, surrounding the eyes, nostrils and mouth, as well as on the sides of the head. The large plates are divided by a mosaic of smaller plates than extend onto the trunk and pectoral fins.

Sources & Further reading

1. Benton, Michael J., 2005, Vertebrate Palaeontology, 3 rd ed., Blackwell Publishing.