Furcacaudiformes is an extinct order of jawless fish in the class Thelodonti.[1]
Because the paucity of intact fossils, especially since some families are known entirely from scale fossils, taxonomy of thelodonts is based primarily on scale morphology. A 2009 assessment of thelodont taxonomy by Wilson and Märss merges the orders Loganelliiformes, Katoporiida and Shieliiformes into Thelodontiformes, places familiesLanarkiidae and Nikoliviidae into Furcacaudiformes (because of scale morphology) and establishes Archipelepidiformes as the basal-most order.[2]
References
^Wilson, Mark V. H.; Caldwell, Michael W. (1998). "The Furcacaudiformes: a new order of jawless vertebrates with thelodont scales, based on articulated Silurian and Devonian fossils from northern Canada". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 18 (1): 10–29. doi:10.1080/02724634.1998.10011031. JSTOR4523870.
