- Hyperoartia
Taxobox
name = Hyperoartians
fossil_range =Devonian -Recent
image_width = 250px
image_caption =Sea lamprey from Sweden
regnum =Animal ia
phylum = Chordata
unranked_classis = Hyperoartia
subdivision_ranks = subgroups
subdivision = "Jamoytius "
"Endeiolepis "
"Euphanerops"
*Petromyzontiformes (lampreys)Hyperoartia is a group of
jawless fish es that includes the modernlamprey s and theirfossil relatives, the jawless fishes of the classAnaspida . Example of hyperoartian from early in their fossil record are "Endeiolepis" and "Euphanerops", fishes with hypocercal tails that lived during the LateDevonian Period. Some paleontologists still classify these forms among the jawless armored fishes.The only hyperoartians surviving today are lampreys, classified in the Petromyzontiformes. The discovery of the fossil "
Priscomyzon ", pushed back the oldest known occurrence of true lampreys to the LateDevonian . The evidence of phylogeny, however, suggests that the lamprey lineage diverged much earlier from other vertebrates, rather than arising fromostracoderm fishes. The origin of Hyperoartia may therefore extend back to the earlyPaleozoic , if not earlier.
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.