Acanthodii

"Spiny shark" redirects here. For the spiny true sharks, see Echinorhinus.

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Acanthodii Fossil range: Early Silurian–Permian PreЄ Є O S D C P T J K Pg N
Diplacanthus longispinus cast at the Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Subphylum:	Vertebrata
Infraphylum:	Gnathostomata
Class:	Acanthodii
Orders
Climatiiformes Ischnacanthiformes Acanthodiformes

Acanthodii (sometimes called spiny sharks) is a class of extinct fishes, sharing features with both bony fish and cartilaginous fish. In form they resembled sharks, but their epidermis was covered with tiny rhomboid platelets like the scales of holosteans (gars, bowfins). They may have been an independent phylogenetic branch of fishes, which had evolved from little-specialized forms close to Recent Chondrichthyes.

Acanthodians did, in fact, have a cartilaginous skeleton, but their fins had a wide, bony base and were reinforced on their anterior margin with a dentine spine.

The earliest acanthodians were marine, but during the Devonian, freshwater species became predominant. They are distinguished in two respects: they were the earliest known jawed vertebrates, and they had stout spines supporting their fins, fixed in place and non-movable (like a shark's dorsal fin).

Mesacanthus, Parexus, and Ischnacanthus of Early Devonian Great Britain

There were three orders: Climatiiformes, Ischnacanthiformes and Acanthodiformes. Climatiiforma had shoulder armor and many small sharp spines, Ischnacanthiforma with teeth fused to the jaw, and the Acanthodiforma were filter feeders, with no teeth in the jaw, but long gill rakers. Overall, the acanthodians' jaws are presumed to have evolved from the first gill arch of some ancestral jawless fishes that had a gill skeleton made of pieces of jointed cartilage.

The popular name "spiny sharks" is really a misnomer for these early jawed fishes. The name was coined because they were superficially shark-shaped, with a streamlined body, paired fins, and a strongly upturned tail; stout bony spines supported all the fins except the tail - hence, "spiny sharks". Fossilized spines and scales are often all that remains of these fishes in ancient sedimentary rocks.

The scales of Acanthodii have distinctive ornamentation peculiar to each order. Because of this, the scales are often used in determining relative age of sedimentary rock. The scales are tiny, with a bulbous base, a neck, and a flat or slightly curved diamond-shaped crown.

Despite being called "spiny sharks," acanthodians predate sharks. They evolved in the sea at the beginning of the Silurian Period, some 50 MYA before the first sharks appeared. Later the acanthodians colonized fresh waters, and thrived in the rivers and lakes during the Devonian and in the coal swamps of Carboniferous. But the first bony fishes were already showing their potential to dominate the waters of the world, and their competition proved too much for the spiny sharks, which died out in Permian times (approximately 250 MYA).

Many paleonthologists consider that the acanthodians were close to the ancestors of the bony fishes. Although their interior skeletons were made of cartilage, a bonelike material had developed in the skins of these fishes, in the form of closely fitting scales (see above). Some scales were greatly enlarged and formed a bony covering on top of the head and over the lower shoulder girdle. Others developed a bony flap over the gill openings analogous to the operculum in later bony fishes.

See also

Paleontology portal

• List of acanthodians
• Placoderm

References

• Beneš, Josef (1979), Prehistoric Animals and Plants, New York: Hamlyn, ISBN 0600303411 
• Janvier, Phillipe (1996), Early vertebrates, Oxford: Clarendon Press, ISBN 0198540477 
• Long, John A. (1995), The Rise of Fishes: 500 Million Years of Evolution, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, ISBN 0801849926 
• Palmer, Douglas, ed. (1999), The Simon & Schuster Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs & Prehistoric Creatures. A Visual Who's Who of Prehistoric Life, New York: Simon & Schuster, ISBN 0684864118 

External links

• Acanthodii taxonomy
• †Ischnacanthiformes taxonomy
• †Climatiiformes taxonomy
• †Acanthodiformes taxonomy
• Ischnacanthus gracilis - A Devonian Fish by Neal Robbins
• PALAEOZOIC FISH UK
• Acanthodopsis wardi