Brindabellaspis stensioi ("Erik Stensiö

Erik Stensiö

Erik Helge Osvald Stensiö was a Swedish paleozoologist.Erik Andersson, as his original name was, was born in the village of Stensjö in Döderhult parish in Kalmar County; he later took his new surname from his place of origin and is occasionally referred to with both names...

's Brindabella Ranges

Brindabella Ranges

The Brindabella Range is a mountain range located on the border between New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory, Australia. The ranges rise to the west of Canberra, the capital city of Australia, and include the Namadgi National Park in the A.C.T. and Bimberi Nature Reserve and...

 Shield") was a long-snouted placoderm from the Early Devonian of the Taemas-Wee Jasper reef in Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

. When it was first discovered in 1980, it was originally regarded as a Weejasperaspid acanthothoracid due to anatomical similarities with the other species found at the reef.

According to Philippe Janvier, anatomical similarities of B. stensiois brain and braincase with those of jawless fish, such as the Osteostraci

Osteostraci

The class Osteostraci was a group of bony-armored jawless fish, termed "ostracoderms", that lived in what is now North America, Europe and Russia from the Middle Silurian to Late Devonian....

 and the Galeaspida

Galeaspida

Galeaspida is an extinct taxon of jawless marine and freshwater fish. Their name is derived from a Latin word for helmet, galea, and refers to their massive bone shield on the head...

, strongly suggest that B. stensioi is a basal placoderm closest to the ancestral placoderm.

External links

• Palaeos article on B. stensioi