Torosteus
≈ 1 min read
Names in other languages
No names in other languages are held for this entry yet.
Article bodies are English and are not machine-translated. A name in another language is not a translation of the article.
Torosteus is an extinct genus of arthrodire placoderm from the Early Frasnian stage of the Late Devonian period. Fossils are found in the Kimberley region of Australia.
Torosteus is an extinct genus of arthrodire placoderm from the Early Frasnian stage of the Late Devonian period. Fossils are found in the Kimberley region of Australia.
Description
Torosteuss body size and morphology are similar to Incisoscutum and Compagopiscis, suggesting a possible pelagic lifestyle, although they were on different trophic levels of their ecosystem. Bite force analysis has suggested that it was an active predator, and fossils have been found in numbers, suggesting possible schooling behavior.
Phylogeny
Torosteus was originally classified as a member of the family Plourdosteidae. However, phylogenetic analysis later found Plourdosteidae to be an invalid grouping, and the family was dismissed. Torosteus is now considered to be a member of the superfamily Incisoscutoidea, which belongs to the clade Coccosteomorphi, one of the two major clades within Eubrachythoraci. The cladogram below shows the phylogeny of Torosteus:
Text derived from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1354891029 under CC BY-SA 4.0; modifications have been made.