''Maideria falipoui'' is a long-snouted
brachythoraci
Brachythoraci is an extinct suborder of arthrodire placoderms, armored fish most diverse during the Devonian.
Phylogeny
Arthrodira is divided into three main groups: the paraphyletic Actinolepida and Phlyctaenii, and then the monophyletic Brac ...
d
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
Placoderms (from Ancient Greek πλάξ 'plax'', ''plakos'''Plate (animal anatomy), plate' and δέρμα 'derma'''skin') are vertebrate animals of the class (biology), class Placodermi, an extinct group of prehistoric fish known from Pal ...
from the Lower Middle
Givetian
The Givetian is one of two faunal stages in the Middle Devonian Period. It lasted from million years ago to million years ago. It was preceded by the Eifelian Stage and followed by the Frasnian Stage. It is named after the town of Givet in ...
epoch
In chronology and periodization, an epoch or reference epoch is an instant in time chosen as the origin of a particular calendar era. The "epoch" serves as a reference point from which time is measured.
The moment of epoch is usually decided b ...
of Middle
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 ...
South Morocco, in what is now the
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 ...
Mountains. Although ''M. falipoui'' superficially resembles ''
Buchanosteus'', albeit with an elongated snout or
rostrum
Rostrum may refer to:
* Any kind of a platform for a speaker:
**dais
**pulpit
** podium
* Rostrum (anatomy), a beak, or anatomical structure resembling a beak, as in the mouthparts of many sucking insects
* Rostrum (ship), a form of bow on naval ...
, ''M. falipoui'' is considered to be a
basal member of the group
Coccosteina, thus, it has not yet been given any
familial ranking.
References
Enigmatic arthrodire taxa
Placoderms of Africa
Fossil taxa described in 1995
Arthrodire genera
{{Placoderm-stub