Powichthys

• Prince of Wales Island (Canada)
• Spitsbergen

Powichthys is an extinct genus of fish from the class of meat -finned fishes ( Sarcopterygii ), which in the Lower Devonian ( Lochkovian ) occurred. Fossils of the genus that are assigned to two species have been found on the Prince of Wales Island in the Canadian Arctic and on Svalbard. Powichthys is the only basal sarcopterygians from the Lochkovian, which has been found outside of China. The name Powichthys was composed of the acronym POW for the Prince of Wales Island and the Greek word for fish ( " ichthys ").

Features

Powichthys was a small predator and remained smaller than 30 cm. The genus is primarily known skull fossils. The skull bones were thick and heavy, the body covered with thick, rhombic scales. The eyes were small, as compensation to the lateral line system was well developed. Rows of small bones surrounding the main paired cranial bones, a feature which is also found in lungfish ( Dipnoi ). Between premaxilla and the frontal and ethmoid formed from Os head shield the sutures were always visible. The frontal bone was long, the short parietal bone. The neurocranium was not completely divided into two sections, as is the case of crossopterygians. Within the Kosmoidschuppen were odontodes. The pores of the shed were a Enameloidschicht, a substance similar to the enamel, lined, a feature which Powichthys tells the Porolepiformes, but which appears in no other Fleischflossergruppe.

Species

• Powichthys spitsbergensis, Clément & Janvier 2004; Spitsbergen
• Powichthys thorstein soni, Jessen, 1975; Prince of Wales Island

System

Powichthys is assigned to the Rhipidistia, the Fleischflossergruppe to include the lungfish, and finally from the land vertebrates have emerged. Within the Rhipidistia they are the sister group of the Porolepiformes.