Tuesday October 13, 2026
Sci News —
The newly described fish, named Asioaspis brachyotus, lived in what is now southwestern China approximately 419 million years ago (Lochkovian stage of the Early Devonian epoch).
The species belongs to the Galeaspida, an extinct group of bony-headed, jawless fishes found only in China and northern Vietnam.
These creatures are more closely related to jawed vertebrates, including humans, than to living jawless fishes such as lampreys and hagfish.
“Galeaspids have long been central to understanding the origin of key gnathostome traits, e.g. jaws, spiracle, and paired appendages, because they share a closer phylogenetic affinity with jawed vertebrates than extant jawless fishes,” said Dr. Zhi-Kun Gai, a researcher with the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and colleagues.
“Although restricted to China and northern Vietnam, these armored jawless fishes displayed remarkable morphological disparity and taxonomic diversity during the Siluro-Devonian, with 19 families, 74 genera, and 100 species described to date.”