Odd Cretaceous Aquilolamna provides the Bauplan for Devonian ancestors that also had pectoral spike-bars
The flat placoderm,
Aquilolamna (Fig 1), originally identified as a shark, is readily identified by its long pectoral spike-bars, once considered unique.
Overlooked previously,
those ‘spike-bars’ also appear in Aquilolamna’s manta-like Devonian ancestors.
Figure 1. The flat-head Devonian ancestors of Aquilolamna include Gladbachus, Dickosteus and Bianchengichthys in the LRT. They also have bars/spikes that extend the length of their pectoral fins.
” data-medium-file=”https://pterosaurheresies.files.wordpress.com/2024/02/gladbachus.dickosteus.fossil588-1.jpg?w=130″ data-large-file=”https://pterosaurheresies.files.wordpress.com/2024/02/gladbachus.dickosteus.fossil588-1.jpg?w=442″ class=”size-full wp-image-84363″ src=”https://pterosaurheresies.files.wordpress.com/2024/02/gladbachus.dickosteus.fossil588-1.jpg” alt=”Figure 1. The flat-head Devonian ancestors of Aquilolamna include Gladbachus, Dickosteus and Bianchengichthys in the LRT. They also have bars/spikes that extend the length of their pectoral fins.” width=”584″ height=”1352″ srcset=”https://pterosaurheresies.files.wordpress.com/2024/02/gladbachus.dickosteus.fossil588-1.jpg?w=584&h=1352 584w, https://pterosaurheresies.files.wordpress.com/2024/02/gladbachus.dickosteus.fossil588-1.jpg?w=65&h=150 65w, https://pterosaurheresies.files.wordpress.com/2024/02/gladbachus.dickosteus.fossil588-1.jpg?w=130&h=300 130w, https://pterosaurheresies.files.wordpress.com/2024/02/gladbachus.dickosteus.fossil588-1.jpg 588w” sizes=”(max-width: 584px) 100vw, 584px” />
Figure 1. The flat-head Devonian ancestors of Aquilolamna include Gladbachus, Dickosteus and Bianchengichthys in the LRT. They also have bars/spikes that extend the length of their pectoral fins.http://reptileevolution.com/bianchengichthys.htm
Clade members include
tiny Bianchengichthys (Figs 1, 2), larger Dickosteus, larger Gladbachus and larger Cladoselache kepleri (known only from a skull). In Gladbachus the spine-bars were taphonomically broken into several pieces (Fig 1), which helped them avoid detection and identification until today.
Figure 2. Tracing of Bianchengichthys with previously overlooked pectoral spines (cyan) added here.
” data-medium-file=”https://pterosaurheresies.files.wordpress.com/2024/02/bianchengichthys_reconstructed588.jpg?w=300″ data-large-file=”https://pterosaurheresies.files.wordpress.com/2024/02/bianchengichthys_reconstructed588.jpg?w=584″ class=”size-full wp-image-84365″ src=”https://pterosaurheresies.files.wordpress.com/2024/02/bianchengichthys_reconstructed588.jpg” alt=”Figure 2. Tracing of Bianchengichthys with previously overlooked pectoral spines (cyan) added here.” width=”584″ height=”396″ srcset=”https://pterosaurheresies.files.wordpress.com/2024/02/bianchengichthys_reconstructed588.jpg?w=584&h=396 584w, https://pterosaurheresies.files.wordpress.com/2024/02/bianchengichthys_reconstructed588.jpg?w=150&h=102 150w, https://pterosaurheresies.files.wordpress.com/2024/02/bianchengichthys_reconstructed588.jpg?w=300&h=204 300w, https://pterosaurheresies.files.wordpress.com/2024/02/bianchengichthys_reconstructed588.jpg 588w” sizes=”(max-width: 584px) 100vw, 584px” />
Figure 2. Tracing of Bianchengichthys with previously overlooked pectoral spines (cyan) added here.
According to Wikipedia,
“Aquilolamna displays an array of extremely unusual adaptations that make it unlike any living or extinct species of shark.”
That’s because Aquilolamna nests with flat-head placoderms lacking armor in the LRT. Taxon exclusion remains the number one problem in palenotology. The LRT addresses that problem by including 2300+ taxa.
The last common ancestor method
is used in the LRT to deterimine clade membership. Others use textbooks, traditions, characters and borrowed cladograms to determine taxon sets. The LRT minimizes cherry-picking by including a larger gamut of taxa = the gamut of all chordates. That permits new hypotheses of interrelationships to appear that one finds only by testing taxa together that have never been tested together previously.
Build your own wide gamut analysis to test this hypothesis of interrelationships, which currently needs confirmation, refutation or modification.
Aquilolamna milarcae
(Vullo et al. 2021; 1.6m; Tuorcian, Early Cretaceous, INAH 2544 P.F.17) was described as a manta-like plankton feeder with wide terminal jaws. Here Aquilolamna nests with Cladoselache kepleri (Fig 1) among the flath-head placoderms.
Skull labels provided by Vullo et al. are reinterpreted here.
Sometimes we see things as they really are
only when we are prepared to do so, usually after a period of training or study. Digital graphic segregation (DGS) helps the eye and the mind by simplifying apparent chaos.
References
Vullo R, Frey E, Ifrim C, Gonzalez Gonzalez MA, Stinnesbeck ES and Stinnesbeck W 2021. Manta-like planktivorous sharks in Late Cretaceous oceans. Science 371(6535): 1253-1256. DOI: 10.1126/science.abc1490
Source: https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/2024/02/19/odd-cretaceous-aquilolamna-provides-the-bauplan-for-devonian-ancestors-that-also-had-pectoral-spike-bars/
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