Ligulalepis

Ligulalepis
Temporal range:
Skull of Ligulalepis toombsi
Scientific classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Clade: Osteichthyes
Genus: Ligulalepis
Schultze 1968
Type species
Ligulalepis toombsi
Schultze 1968
Species
  • L. sinensis Burrow, Turner & Wang 2009
  • L. toombsi Schultze 1968
  • L. yunnanensis Wang & Dong 1989

Ligulalepis is an extinct genus of stem-osteichthyans which lived from the Silurian to the Early Devonian. Ligulalepis was first described from isolated scales found in the Taemas-Wee jasper limestones of New South Wales (Emsian age) by Hans-Peter Schultze (1968) and further material described by Burrow (1994). A nearly complete skull found in the same general location was described in Nature by Basden et al. (2000) claiming the genus was closely related to basal ray-finned fishes (Actinopterygii). In 2015 Flinders University student Benedict King found a more complete new skull of this genus which was formally described by Clement et al. (2018), showing Ligulalepis to be on the stem of all osteichthyans.