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The Life and Death of Jamoytius Kerwoodi White; a Silurian Jawless Nektonic Herbivore?
Version 1
: Received: 25 December 2023 / Approved: 26 December 2023 / Online: 26 December 2023 (14:19:21 CET)
A peer-reviewed article of this Preprint also exists.
Brookfield, M.E. The Life and Death of Jamoytius kerwoodi White; A Silurian Jawless Nektonic Herbivore? Foss. Stud. 2024, 2, 77-91. Brookfield, M.E. The Life and Death of Jamoytius kerwoodi White; A Silurian Jawless Nektonic Herbivore? Foss. Stud. 2024, 2, 77-91.
Abstract
Jamoytius kerwoodi, is a primitive, eel-like jawless vertebrate found uniquely in an Early Silurian (Llandovery epoch; 444-433 Ma) horizon near Lesmahagow, Scotland. This species is a rare component of a low-diversity dominantly nektonic detritus and herbivorous fauna living over an anoxic bottom and is found at the transition from a marine-influenced, probably brackish-water, deep-water basin to a shallower-water, less saline and likely freshwater basin. In the absence of true teeth, Jamoytius was probably a detritivore or herbivore feeding on Ceratiocaris. Jamoytius may be a direct ancestor of living lampreys, especially as their ectoparasitic mode of life might have evolved from ancestral microphagous filterers or herbivores.
Keywords
Jamoytius; lamprey; herbivore; detritivore; Silurian
Subject
Environmental and Earth Sciences, Paleontology
Copyright: This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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