In Depth
Usually considered to be a primitive fish with an elongate eel-like body, there is no universal agreement into what Palaeospondylus actually was. In the past Palaeospondylus has been proposed to be a larval lungfish, unarmoured placoderm, an arthrodire, a chimaera and even a larval tetrapod.
A primitive fish that might be similar to Palaeospondylus in form, and also known from Scotland, is Jamoytius.
Further Reading
– Palaeospondylus as a primitive hagfish. – Zoological Letters. 2 (1): 20. – T. Hirasawa, Y. Oisi & S. Kuratani – 2016. – Questioning hagfish affinities of the enigmatic Devonian vertebrate Palaeospondylus. – Royal Society Open Science. 4 (7): 170214. – Zerina Johanson, Moya Smith, Sophie Sanchez, Tim Senden, Kate Trinajstic & Cathrin Pfaff – 2017.
