Description
A typical individual of ''Lunaspis'' was a flattened fish with a short trunk and long, curved cornual plates. These long, spine-like plates give the suggestion of a crescent moon, hence the generic name (moon-shield). The nostrils and the anterior part of the head shield around the orbits is covered by a number of tiny scales, as is the elongated trunk. ''Lunaspis'' were marine bottom dwelling creatures, like many otherBony armor
According to specimens examined from the Taemas-Wee Jasper region of New South Wales in Australia, both ''L. broilii'' and ''L. herolfi'' have tubercles of the median dorsal plate coalesce into a distinct median dorsal ridge (MDR). The fusion of the tubercles is unique to ''Lunaspis'' in the order Petalichthyida, where other devonian fish in this order have ornament tubercles that are separately occurring. The maximum height of the ridge is reached before the posterior margin of the median dorsal plate. The spinal plates are curved and are the wings off of the center part of the bony armoring. They have many small spines along the anterior ridge of spinal plates. The ornament ridges on the bony plates make it easily distinguishable from other petalichtyid fish. These ornament ridges are widely spaced and continuous in the ''Lunaspis'', across the three species; in ''L. broilii'', the ornaments are more densely packed than ''L. heroldi'' and ''L. prumiensis''.Young, G. C. (1985). Further petalichthyid remains (placoderm fished, Early Devonian) from the Taemas-Wee Jasper region, new South Wales. BMR Journal of Australian Geology and Geophysics, 9, 121–131.Discovery
The generic named is a compound word combining two different Greek words: “Luna” and “aspis”. In Greek, the word “luna” means The Moon, and the word “aspis” means Round Shield. Together, luna and asp signify “moon shield”; appropriately named as the long projections from the head shield make a crescent moon-like shape. The first specimens of ''L. broilii'' were discovered and described through the collaboration of two German palaeontologists, Walter R. Gross and Ferdinand Broili. Broili discovered ''L. heroldi'' in 1929 in Germany. In Bundenbach, Germany 1937, Broili then discovered another fossil specimen that resembled ''Lunaspis'' ''heroldi''. At first he put into the same species as ''L. heroldi'', but noticed a difference in morphology from the previously discovered species. Near where Broili had discovered his specimen, another palaeontologist by the name of Gross was working with another specimen of ''Lunaspis'' which he originally thought to be ''Lunaspis'' ''prumiensis''. Gross was working with fragments of the cranial exoskeletal bones of the unidentified ''Lunaspis'' species. The palaeontologists connected soon after and compared their specimens with one another and worked together to discover the differences that existed among the existing species within the genus and were able to come to a conclusion. According to the spinal and anterior ventro-lateral anatomy of the specimens they had collected, they determined that the specimen that both of them had found was a different one than had yet been identified. This new species within the same genus as ''L. heroldi'' and ''L. prumiensis'' was named ''Lunaspis broilii''. ''L. Broilii'' is very commonly larger than ''L. heroldi''. The specimens of ''L. broilii'' were originally only found in Emsian-aged Hunsruck Slate of Bundenbach, Germany,Lehmann, W. M. (1951). Neue Beobachtungen an Lunaspis. Neues Jahrbuch Fuer Geologie Und Palaeontologie. Abhandlungen, 94(1), 93-100. but in 1980, Liu Shifan found specimens that are most likely identifiable as ''L. broilii''. Specimens of ''L. broilii'' have been more recently found in Reefton, New Zealand, and have been identified as closely related, if not the same as those found in New South Wales, Australia. They have been found to have the same concentrically tuberculated ridges which is typical of ''Lunaspis''.Macadie, I. (2007). A Placoderm Fish Plate from the Lower Devonian of Reefton, New Zealand. Records of Canterbury Museum, 21, 21–26. Specimens of ''L. heroldi'' are also found in similarly aged marine strata in China and Australia.Classification
''Lunaspis'' was originally placed within the family Acanthaspidae, but according to Walter Gross's findings in 1937, the type genus of Acanthaspidae, ''Acanthaspis'', was synonymized with ''Lunaspis'', and the entire family merged into the family Macropetalichthyidae. ''Lunaspis'' is currently placed among seven other Macropetalichthyids, and sister to two other families within Petalichthyida.Paleoecology
Specimens from the Reefton, New Zealand site were found in the WaitahReferences
{{Taxonbar, from=Q3267453 Petalichthyida Placoderms of Asia Placoderms of Australia Placoderms of Europe Placoderm genera Hunsrück Slate fossils