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Gnathostome diversity comprises roughly 60,000 species, which accounts for 99% of all living vertebrates, including humans. Most gnathostomes have retained ancestral traits like true teeth , a stomach , [ 2 ] and paired appendages (pectoral and pelvic fins, arms, legs, wings, etc.). [ 3 ]
Acanthodii or acanthodians is an extinct class of gnathostomes (jawed fishes).They are currently considered to represent a paraphyletic grade of various fish lineages basal to extant Chondrichthyes, which includes living sharks, rays, and chimaeras.
The earliest deposited generations of accessory teeth in each row are located at the tip of the whorl spiral labially of the primary teeth. Unlike the continuously shedding teeth of modern sharks, [7] the tooth whorls of Qianodus retained their teeth and grew in size throughout the life of the animal. The recorded gradual enlargement of the ...
Agnatha (/ ˈ æ ɡ n ə θ ə, æ ɡ ˈ n eɪ θ ə /; [3] from Ancient Greek ἀ-(a-) 'without' and γνάθος (gnáthos) 'jaws') is a paraphyletic infraphylum [4] of non-gnathostome vertebrates, or jawless fish, in the phylum Chordata, subphylum Vertebrata, consisting of both living (cyclostomes) and extinct (conodonts, anaspids, and ostracoderms, among others).
Conodont elements consist of mineralised teeth-like structures of varying morphology and complexity. The evolution of mineralized tissues has been puzzling for more than a century. It has been hypothesized that the first mechanism of chordate tissue mineralization began either in the oral skeleton of conodonts or the dermal skeleton of early ...
[2] 380-million-year-old fossils of three other genera, Incisoscutum, Materpiscis and Austroptyctodus, represent the oldest known examples of live birth. [ 3 ] Placoderms are thought to be paraphyletic , consisting of several distinct outgroups or sister taxa to all living jawed vertebrates , which originated among their ranks. [ 4 ]
The mouth is located just behind the head, after a rostrum, on the underside of the body. It has a pair of cuticular jaws, supplied by strong muscles, and often bearing minute teeth. A "basal plate" on the lower surface that bears a comb-like structure is also present.
The largest fang is located a bit further back, on an enlarged first coronoid bone which swells inwards from the rim of the jaw. The neck joint is a strong hinge, formed from the contact between a pair of exoccipital condyles (rounded surfaces on the braincase) and a partially fused atlas - axis complex (the first few neck vertebrae).