The Pituriaspida ('

Pituri Pituri, also known as mingkulpa, is a mixture of leaves and wood ash traditionally chewed as a stimulant (or, after extended use, a depressant) by Aboriginal Australians widely across the continent. Leaves are gathered from any of several speci ...

-shield' or 'hallucinogen-shield') are a small group of extinct armored jawless fishes with tremendous nose-like rostrums, which lived in the marine, deltaic environments of

Middle Devonian The Devonian ( ) is a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic era, spanning 60.3 million years from the end of the Silurian, million years ago (Mya), to the beginning of the Carboniferous, Mya. It is named after Devon, England, w ...

Australia (about 390 Ma). They are known only by two species, '' Pituriaspis doylei'' and '' Neeyambaspis enigmatica'' found in a single sandstone location of the

Georgina Basin The Georgina Basin is a large (c. 330,000 km2) intracratonic sedimentary basin in central and northern Australia, lying mostly within the Northern Territory and partly within Queensland.Smith, KG (1972). "Stratigraphy of the Georgina Basin. ...

, in Western

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , establishe ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

. "Pituriaspida" is often translated as 'hallucinogenic shield.'

is a hallucinogenic drug, made from the leaves of the Corkwood Tree and ''

Acacia ''Acacia'', commonly known as the wattles or acacias, is a large genus of shrubs and trees in the subfamily Mimosoideae of the pea family Fabaceae. Initially, it comprised a group of plant species native to Africa and Australasia. The genus nam ...

'' ash, and used by local Aborigine

shaman Shamanism is a religious practice that involves a practitioner (shaman) interacting with what they believe to be a spirit world through altered states of consciousness, such as trance. The goal of this is usually to direct spirits or spir ...

s for vision quests. The pituriaspids' discoverer, Dr Gavin Young, named '' Pituriaspis'' after the drug because, upon examining the first specimens, he suspected he was hallucinating (Long, p 59). The better studied species - '' Pituriaspis doylei'', which had a superficial resemblance to the Osteostraci, had an elongate headshield, that, coupled with its spear-like rostrum, gave it a throwing-dart-like appearance. '' Neeyambaspis enigmatica'' had a much smaller and shorter rostrum, and a more triangular headshield, making it look as though it were a

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected string ...

pick with a tail.

References

*Janvier, Philippe. Early Vertebrates. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, 1998 (). *Long, John A. The Rise of Fishes: 500 Million Years of Evolution. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996 ().

External links

Pituriaspida
Middle Devonian first appearances Givetian extinctions Prehistoric fish classes {{Devonian-jawless-fish-stub