Thelodus

Thelodus is an extinct genus of thelodont agnathan that lived during the Silurian period. Fossils have been found in Europe, Asia and North America.[1] Unlike many thelodonts, species of Thelodus are known not only from scales, but from impressions in rocks. Some species, such as the Canadian T. inauditus, are thought to be comparable in size to other thelodonts, i.e., from 5 to 15 centimeters in length.[2] The scales of the type species, T. parvidens (syn. T. macintoshi) of Silurian Great Britain, however, reach the size of coins, and, if proportioned like other thelodonts, such as Loganellia, the living animal would have been about one meter in length.[3]

Thelodus
Temporal range: Silurian
Comparison of T. parvidens and Loganellia
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Chordata
Class:
Thelodonti
Order:
Thelodontiformes
Family:
Coelolepidae
Genus:
Thelodus

Agassiz, 1839
Type species
Thelodus parvidens
Synonyms
  • ?Coelolepis
  • Thelolepis
  • Pachylepis

References
  1. Thelodus at Fossilworks.org
  2. Märss, Tiiu, Mark VH Wilson, and Raymond Thorsteinsson. "New thelodont (Agnatha) and possible chondrichthyan (Gnathostomata) taxa established in the Silurian and Lower Devonian of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago." Proceedings of the Estonian Academy of Sciences, Geology. Vol. 51. No. 2. Estonian Academy Publishers, 2002.
  3. Turner, Susan. Thelodus Macintoshi Stetson 1928: The Largest Known Thelodont (Agnatha: Thelodonti). Museum of Comparative Zoology, 1986.
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