Extinct genus of jawless fishes
Cyathaspis
Reconstruction of C. banksii
Scientific classification
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Cyathaspis
Lankester
Type species
Pteraspis banksii
Species
C. acadica (Matthew 1886)
C. banksii (Huxley & Salter 1856)
C. barroisi (Leriche 1906)
C. lindstromi Kiaer & Heintz 1935
C. ludensis
C. macculloughi (Woodward 1891)
Cyathaspis is the type genus of the heterostracan order Cyathaspidiformes .[ 1] Fossils are found in late Silurian strata in the Cunningham Creek Formation , New Brunswick, Canada and Europe , especially in the Downton Castle Sandstone of Great Britain and Gotland , Sweden .[citation needed ] The living animal would have looked superficially like a tadpole , albeit covered in bony plates composed of the tissue aspidine, which is unique to heterostracan armor.[citation needed ]
Cyathaspis ludensis is the earliest British vertebrate fossil.[citation needed ] It was found in rocks at Leintwardine in Herefordshire, a noted fossil locality.[citation needed ]
References