#jamoytius

[ungojirasapiente]

and now, the Silurian period! ------ y ahora, el periodo Silurico!

[antiqueanimals]

The Simon and Schuster Illustrated Encyclopedia; Prehistoric World, Michael Benton, 1988.

[blaiddydsaurus]

Some silurian fellas

[aaronjarvinen]

jamoytius

[palaeopedia]

The Jamoytius (1946)

Phylum : Chordata Class : Anapsida Genus : Jamoytius Species : J. kerwoodi

Silurian (410 Ma)

25 cm long (size)

Scotland (map)

Jamoytius was a jawless fish‭ ‬of the Silurian,‭ ‬though its credibility has in the past been cast in doubt.‭ ‬Several researchers examined the original fossils and rather than interpreting them as the carbonised remains of muscles,‭ ‬they‭ ‬interpreted them as the scales of an anapsid reptile.‭ ‬Later fossil discoveries however,‭ ‬including specimens with the mouth preserved re-conformed White’s original interpretation that Jamoytius was indeed a jawless fish.‭ ‬That said,‭ ‬some past fossil specimens once attributed to Jamoytius have now been found not to belong to the genus.

For lack of a better description,‭ ‬Jamoytius seems to resemble a modern lamprey in form,‭ ‬and may have lived in a similar manner,‭ ‬rasping away at the body of another fish before latching on and sucking blood from its target.‭ ‬However,‭ ‬hard teeth are so far unknown and so Jamoytius might have been swum around looking for small organisms to suck into its mouth.‭ ‬Jamoytius had an elongated body with long fins along its back and flanks.‭ ‬The jawless mouth of Jamoytius was faced forwards from the front.‭ ‬The position of the mouth makes it less likely that Jamoytius was a detritivore because most fish that lived that way during the Silurian had their mouths on the undersides of the head.