Name:
Melanosteus
(Black bone).
Phonetic: Me-la-no-ste-uss.
Named By: H. Leli�vre, R. Feist, D.
Goujet & A. Blieck - 1987
Classification: Chordata, Placodermi,
Arthrodira, Coccosteina, Dinichthyloidea, Selenosteidae.
Species: M. occitanus, M. indica.
Diet: Carnivore?
Size: Skull about 5 centimetres long.
Known locations: Canada?. France. India -
Shiala Formation.
Time period: Silurian to Frasnian of the Devonian.
Fossil representation: Skulls.
Melanosteus seems to have been a fairly small genus of arthrodire placoderm fish that had a near global distribution early from the Silurian to Devonian periods. As an arthrodire placoderm fish, Melanosteus was likely a predator of other aquatic organisms. Melanosteus was named after the Montagne Noire (Black Mountains) of France near where the first fossils were discovered.
Further reading
- Les vert�br�s de la Montagne Noire (Sud de la France) et leur
apport � la phylog�nie des Pachyost�omorphes (Placodermes,
Arthrodires). - Palaeovertebrata 17: 1–16. - H.
Leli�vre, R. Feist, D. Goujet & A. Blieck -
1987.
- A new melanosclerite, Melanosteus indica
nov. sp.
(?Cnidaria) from the Shiala Formation of the Garhwal Tethyan
Himalaya, India. - Micropaleontology vol 57 no 6
pp531-535. - Claudia Trampisch & Hareshwar N. Sinha
- 2011.