
Haikouichthys
Sign in to saveHaikouichthys is an extinct genus of primitive jawless fish that lived during the Cambrian period, 518 million years ago, in what is now the Yunnan Province of China. Alongside Myllokunmingia and Zhongjianichthys, it is considered to be the earliest known vertebrate animal in the fossil record.
In the Vinony graph
Within Vinony's link graph, Haikouichthys is referenced by 89 other articles, and connects out to lamprey, transitional fossil and Amphioxiformes.
It is catalogued under topics including Cambrian chordates, Cambrian fish and Cambrian genera.
Its subject is documented across 22 Wikipedia language editions.
Wikidata facts
- Parent taxon
- Myllokunmingiidae
- Image
- Haikouichthys4.png
Show 5 more facts
- Commons category
- Myllokunmingia
- taxon rank
- genus
- taxon name
- Haikouichthys
- start time
- 535000000-
- end time
- 520000000-
Sources (1)
via Wikidata · CC0
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Encyclopedic overview
8 sectionsContents
- Description
- Head
- Eyes
- Body
- Paleoecology
- See also
- References
- External links
Haikouichthys is an extinct genus of primitive jawless fish that lived during the Cambrian period, 518 million years ago, in what is now the Yunnan Province of China. Alongside Myllokunmingia and Zhongjianichthys, it is considered to be the earliest known vertebrate animal in the fossil record.
The type species, Haikouichthys ercaicunensis, was first described in 1999 in addition to its confamilial, Myllokunmingia, and more than 500 specimens were referred to this taxon as of 2003. The holotype was found in the Yuanshan member of the Qiongzhusi Formation in the 'Eoredlichia' Zone near Ercai Village in the Haikou Subdistrict (not to be confused with the city of Haikou in Hainan) of Xishan, Kunming, hence its specific name, which means "Haikou fish from Ercaicun". The fossil (along with Myllokunmingia's holotype) was recovered among the Chengjiang fauna, in one of a series of Lagerstätten sites where thousands of exquisitely preserved soft-bodied fossils have already been found.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Haikouichthys” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.