New placoderm fishes from the Late Devonian of South Africa

ABSTRACT

New placoderm fishes are described from a black shale lens in the Famennian Witpoort Formation, near Grahamstown, South Africa. Arthrodires include a new species of Groenlandaspis, G. riniensis sp. nov., a new genus of groenlandaspidid, Africanaspis doryssa gen. et sp. nov., and a new species of the antiarch Bothriolepis, B. africana sp. nov. This is the first record of the ubiquitous genera Bothriolepis and Groenlandaspis from the African continent. The South African placoderm fauna has demonstrable links with the eastern Gondwana faunas in the close affinity of the Bothriolepis africana with B. barred of Antarctica, and the high diversity of groenlandaspid species, especially the presence of a very high crested form having affinities to Tiaraspis.