Agnathans from the Devonian of China

Our Anglo-Chinese re-examination of material from southern China has led to a reappraisal of the two major groups of the primitive armoured jawless fish, the ostracoderms. We have united the galeaspids and polybranchiaspids in the Galeaspida of equal rank to the Osteostraci (Cephalaspides) and grouped them within the same major agnathan division as the anaspids and lampreys—the Cephalaspidomorphi. We also now believe that during the Lower Devonian, southern China was part of an isolated faunal province in which the agnathans experienced a major evolutionary radiation, independently from the rest of the world.