Polybranchiaspis sp.
Lower Devonian
Yunnan, China
43mm headshield on 75mm slab. Extremely rare.

Galeaspid. Fish. Ostracoderm.

Polybranchiaspis is a genus of armored jawless fish (Class Galeaspida) known from the late Silurian to early Devonian of China. The name means “many gilled shield,” a reference to its multiple gill openings. It may have lived like some modern rays, often resting half-buried on the sea bottom largely undetectable by predators.

This specimen is for those who have primitive armored fish specimens from Europe and Australia but don’t have anything only known from Asia.