''Ferromirum'' is an extinct genus of symmoriiform

cartilaginous fish Chondrichthyes (; ) is a class of jawed fish that contains the cartilaginous fish or chondrichthyans, which all have skeletons primarily composed of cartilage. They can be contrasted with the Osteichthyes or ''bony fish'', which have skeleto ...

known from the late

Devonian The Devonian ( ) is a period (geology), geologic period and system (stratigraphy), system of the Paleozoic era (geology), era during the Phanerozoic eon (geology), eon, spanning 60.3 million years from the end of the preceding Silurian per ...

(mid

Famennian The Famennian is the later of two faunal stages in the Late Devonian epoch. The most recent estimate for its duration is that it lasted from around 371.1 to 359.3 million years ago. An earlier 2012 estimate, still used by the International Commis ...

) Ibâouane Formation in the southeastern

Anti-Atlas The Anti-Atlas, also known as Lesser Atlas or Little Atlas, is a mountain range in Morocco, a part of the Atlas Mountains in the northwest of Africa. The Anti-Atlas extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the southwest toward the northeast, to the heig ...

of Morocco, with a single species ''Ferromirum oukherbouchi''. It is known from a single well preserved skeleton, which is of a small individual less than half a metre in length. The jaws and

hyoid arch The pharyngeal arches, also known as visceral arches'','' are transient structures seen in the embryonic development of humans and other vertebrates, that are recognisable precursors for many structures. In fish, the arches support the gills a ...

are preserved uncrushed. The skull has large orbits (eye sockets) which have

sclerotic ring The scleral ring or sclerotic ring is a hardened ring of plates, often derived from bone, that is found in the eyes of many animals in several groups of vertebrates. Some species of mammals, amphibians, and crocodilians lack scleral rings. The rin ...

s. The teeth are small and have a

cladodont This is a typical Cladodont tooth, of a Glikmanius.html" ;"title="shark called ''Glikmanius">shark called ''Glikmanius'' Cladodont (from Latin cladus, meaning branch and Greek Odon, meaning tooth) is the term for a common category of early Devoni ...

morphology. The body is slender. The first dorsal fin has a smooth fin spine, which curves posteriorly towards its tip.

References

Symmoriiformes Late Devonian cartilaginous fish Devonian cartilaginous fish of Africa Fossils of Morocco Fossil taxa described in 2020 {{paleo-cartilaginous-fish-stub