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Deviation Actions
Description
2004, acrylics on card (with subsequent digital overlay). A painting for The Big Picture Book (Allen & Unwin, 2005) with recent modifications to incorporate new fossil data.
ca.415,000,000 b.p. Earliest Devonian (Lochkovian), Yunnan, Peoples' Republic of China.
Over a shallow Devonian seafloor that will one day be part of southern China, a small predatory Psarolepis harasses a school of jawless Polybranchiaspis. All these creatures come from the Xitun Formation of Yunnan, a province that is full of fantastic fossil sites.
FISH
Psarolepis romeri - bigtoothed fish (about 15-20cm long) in left foreground. Either a basal osteichthyan or basal sarcopterygian. One of the most primitive of bony fishes and anatomically close to the common ancestor of the ray-finned and lobe-finned fishes. Retained archaic placoderm-like spines and dermal pelvic girdles.
Polybranchiaspis liaojiaoshanensis - galeaspid - the quintet of weird jawless fish. The hole that looks like a mouth in front of the eyes is actually a water intake leading to the internal nostrils and gills. The mouth is on the underside of the body.
Phymolepis cuifengshanensis - antiarch placoderm - pair of armoured fish in middle distance.
Youngolepis praecursor - big blue guy (about 50 cm long). Basal dipnomorph (group of lobe-finned fishes that include the living lungfishes and the extinct porolepiforms). Probably the most common fish fossil you find in the Xitun. Most remains are of juveniles (less than 15 cm long).
The well preserved fossil skulls of Youngolepis were pivotal in disproving the diphyletic model of tetrapod origins (the idea that salamanders had evolved independently from other tetrapods via porolepiform ancestors).
Nostolepis sp. - acanthodian - pair of little blue fishes.
SEASHELLS
Lingula sp. - these are brachiopods ("lampshells") that are still living today.
SEAWEED
Uncatoella verticillata
ca.415,000,000 b.p. Earliest Devonian (Lochkovian), Yunnan, Peoples' Republic of China.
Over a shallow Devonian seafloor that will one day be part of southern China, a small predatory Psarolepis harasses a school of jawless Polybranchiaspis. All these creatures come from the Xitun Formation of Yunnan, a province that is full of fantastic fossil sites.
FISH
Psarolepis romeri - bigtoothed fish (about 15-20cm long) in left foreground. Either a basal osteichthyan or basal sarcopterygian. One of the most primitive of bony fishes and anatomically close to the common ancestor of the ray-finned and lobe-finned fishes. Retained archaic placoderm-like spines and dermal pelvic girdles.
Polybranchiaspis liaojiaoshanensis - galeaspid - the quintet of weird jawless fish. The hole that looks like a mouth in front of the eyes is actually a water intake leading to the internal nostrils and gills. The mouth is on the underside of the body.
Phymolepis cuifengshanensis - antiarch placoderm - pair of armoured fish in middle distance.
Youngolepis praecursor - big blue guy (about 50 cm long). Basal dipnomorph (group of lobe-finned fishes that include the living lungfishes and the extinct porolepiforms). Probably the most common fish fossil you find in the Xitun. Most remains are of juveniles (less than 15 cm long).
The well preserved fossil skulls of Youngolepis were pivotal in disproving the diphyletic model of tetrapod origins (the idea that salamanders had evolved independently from other tetrapods via porolepiform ancestors).
Nostolepis sp. - acanthodian - pair of little blue fishes.
SEASHELLS
Lingula sp. - these are brachiopods ("lampshells") that are still living today.
SEAWEED
Uncatoella verticillata
Image size
3150x2130px 1.19 MB
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AMAZING this is sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo cool!!!