Project title
Inside the head of the first jawed vertebrates
Description of the project
In 1992, a fieldtrip organized by the Bureau des Ressources Géologiques et Minières and Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle de Paris, allowed the collect of roughly two hundred specimens of placoderm (first jawed vertebrates) from Saudi Arabia. Those remains, found in deposits of 405 million years, are extremely well preserved and represent early unknown representatives of placoderm. The extant jawed vertebrates, i.e. cartilaginous fishes, bony fishes and four-limbed vertebrates, display contrasting characters. The polarities - in a phylogenetic framework - of these differences, and the morphology of the last common ancestor of extant jawed vertebrates, are the subject of continuing debate. Placoderms are at the basis of the jawed vertebrate tree and, for several years, they appear as the key to understand the early evolution of vertebrate. Early representatives of placoderms could help us in the understanding of the vertebrate relationships. Unfortunately, they are quite scarce in the fossil record. The Saudi fauna offers us access to such a material and could therefore be useful in the deciphering of those relationships. The occurrence of placoderms in elderly Saudi deposits of 405 million years raises also interesting paleobiogeographic issues that this project offers to resolve.

Works done by the platform AST-RX

Collection Inventory number Description Thumbnail Equipment
F 1968-8-1 Non MNHN - En dépôt permanent - collection de paléontologie v|tome|x L 240-180
F 1992.6.1 Non MNHN - En dépôt permanent - collection de paléontologie v|tome|x L 240-180
F 1992.6.133 Non MNHN - En dépôt permanent - collection de paléontologie v|tome|x L 240-180
F 1992.6.134 Non MNHN - En dépôt permanent - collection de paléontologie v|tome|x L 240-180
F 1992.6.135 Non MNHN - En dépôt permanent - collection de paléontologie v|tome|x L 240-180
F 1992.6.136 Non MNHN - En dépôt permanent - collection de paléontologie v|tome|x L 240-180
F 1992.6.137 Non MNHN - En dépôt permanent - collection de paléontologie v|tome|x L 240-180
F 1992.6.138 Non MNHN - En dépôt permanent - collection de paléontologie v|tome|x L 240-180
F 1992.6.195 Non MNHN - En dépôt permanent - collection de paléontologie v|tome|x L 240-180
F 1992.6.196 Non MNHN - En dépôt permanent - collection de paléontologie v|tome|x L 240-180
F 1992.6.197 Non MNHN - En dépôt permanent - collection de paléontologie v|tome|x L 240-180
F 1992.6.198 Non MNHN - En dépôt permanent - collection de paléontologie v|tome|x L 240-180
F 1992.6.199 Non MNHN - En dépôt permanent - collection de paléontologie v|tome|x L 240-180
F 1992.6.2 Non MNHN - En dépôt permanent - collection de paléontologie v|tome|x L 240-180
F 1992.6.200 Non MNHN - En dépôt permanent - collection de paléontologie v|tome|x L 240-180
F 1992.6.5 Non MNHN - En dépôt permanent - collection de paléontologie v|tome|x L 240-180
F BOD73a Non MNHN - En dépôt permanent - collection de paléontologie v|tome|x L 240-180
F GBP307 Non MNHN - En dépôt permanent - collection de paléontologie v|tome|x L 240-180
F SVD234 Non MNHN - En dépôt permanent - collection de paléontologie v|tome|x L 240-180
F SVD281 Non MNHN - En dépôt permanent - collection de paléontologie v|tome|x L 240-180
F SVD304 Non MNHN - En dépôt permanent - collection de paléontologie v|tome|x L 240-180