''Gyracanthides'' is an extinct genus of

acanthodian Acanthodii or acanthodians is an extinct class of Gnathostomata, gnathostomes (jawed fishes). They are currently considered to represent a paraphyletic Evolutionary grade, grade of various fish lineages Basal (phylogenetics), basal to extant tax ...

gnathostome, known from

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 ...

Early Carboniferous Early may refer to: Places in the United States * Early, Iowa, a city * Early, Texas, a city * Early Branch, a stream in Missouri * Early County, Georgia * Fort Early, Georgia, an early 19th century fort Music * Early B, stage name of Jamaican d ...

Description

''Gyracanthides'' is large

, ''G. murrayi'' reached the length up to . The pectoral fin spines are large compared to its body, for specimen that have estimated to be had pectoral fin spines around long. A recent study suggested that ''Gyracanthides'' is closely related to

chondrichthyans 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 skeletons ...

(as currently delimited), and that acanthodians are paraphyletic.

References

Prehistoric cartilaginous fish genera Devonian cartilaginous fish Carboniferous cartilaginous fish {{paleo-fish-stub