''Braunosteus schmidti'' is a medium-sized selenosteid

arthrodire Arthrodira (Greek for "jointed neck") is an Order (biology), order of extinct armored, jawed fishes of the class Placodermi that flourished in the Devonian period before their sudden extinction, surviving for about 50 million years and penetratin ...

placoderm known from the Upper

Frasnian The Frasnian is one of two faunal stages in the Late Devonian Period. It lasted from million years ago to million years ago. It was preceded by the Givetian Stage and followed by the Famennian Stage. Major reef-building was under way during th ...

Kellwasserkalk facies of Late

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, whe ...

Bad Wildungen Bad Wildungen is a state-run spa and a small town in Waldeck-Frankenberg district in Hesse, Germany. It is located on the German Timber-Frame Road. Geography Location Bad Wildungen lies in the eastern foothills of the Kellerwald range in the so ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. ''B. schmidti'' has a broad skull about 9 centimeters long, and a short, but pointed rostrum. Its appearance is very similar to that of the basal selenosteid ''

Pachyosteus ''Pachyosteus'' is an extinct monospecific genus of medium-sized selenosteid arthrodire placoderm known from the Upper Frasnian Kellwasserkalk facies of Late Devonian Bad Wildungen, Germany and from the Famennian portions of the Holy Cross Mo ...

''. It was originally placed within a monotypic family, "Braunosteidae," by

Erik Stensiö Prof Erik Helge Osvald Stensiö HFRSE (2 October 1891 – 11 January 1984) was a Sweden, Swedish paleozoology, paleozoologist. He later took his new surname from his place of origin and is occasionally referred to with both names (as Erik Ander ...

in 1959. Obruchev (1964) and Miles (1969) placed it within the Trematosteidae due to the presence of a postpineal fenestra. Denison (1978) has ''B. schmidti'' placed within Selenosteidae, noting that other arthrodires in addition to trematosteids have postpineal fenestrae, as well as similar anatomy of the orbital and suborbital plates, and that its scapulo-coracoid bone is largely identical to those of ''Pachyosteus'' and '' Enseosteus''.

References

Selenosteidae Placoderms of Europe Fossil taxa described in 1959 {{Placoderm-stub