Campbellodus

Campbellodus decipiens is an extinct ptyctodontid placoderm fish that lived around 380 million years ago (Late Devonian). Its fossil remains have been found preserved in perfect three-dimensional form from the Gogo Formation of Western Australia. Originally it was described from large tooth plates and isolated skull roof bones by Miles & Young (1977). Long (1995) restored the complete fish based on new material found at Gogo in the mid 1980s, and described by Long (1997).

Campbellodus Temporal range: Late Frasnian
Artist's reconstruction
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	†Placodermi
Order:	†Ptyctodontida
Family:	†Ptyctodontidae
Genus:	†Campbellodus Miles & Young, 1977
Species:	†C. decipiens
Binomial name
†Campbellodus decipiens Miles & Young, 1977
Synonyms
Ctenurella decipiens

Campbellodus has very short spinal plates, and is unusual in having a high dorsal spine formed by three median dorsal plates. The tooth plates are very robust and the upper plate has a high anterior spine.

Sources

• Long, J.A. 1995. The Rise of Fishes - 500 Million Years of Evolution. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, 230pp.
• Long, J.A. 1997. Ptyctodontid fishes (Vertebrata, Placodermi) from the Late Devonian Gogo Formation, Western Australia, with a revision of the European genus Ctenurella Orvig, 1960. Geodiversitas 19(3): 515–555.
• Miles, R.S. & Young, G.C. 1977. Placoderm interrelationships reconsidered in the light of new ptyctodontids from Gogo, Western Australia. Linnean Society of London, Symposium Series 4: 123–198.