Silurian China

species of fish (fossil)

Psarolepis (; psārolepis, from Greek ψαρός 'speckled' and λεπίς 'scale') is a genus of extinct bony fish which lived around 397 to 418 million years ago (Pridoli to Lochkovian stages). Fossils of Psarolepis have been found mainly in South China and described by paleontologist Xiaobo Yu in 1998. It is not known certainly in which group Psarolepis belongs, but paleontologists agree that it probably is a basal genus and seems to be close to the common ancestor of lobe-finned and ray-finned fishes. In 2001, paleontologist John A. Long compared Psarolepis with onychodontiform fishes and refer to th