Thelodonti (from Greek: "nipple teeth") [4] is a class of extinct Palaeozoic jawless fishes with distinctive scales instead of large plates of armor. There is much debate over whether the group represents a monophyletic grouping, or disparate stem groups to the major lines of jawless and jawed fish. Shielia taiti

Among Vertebrata, the Thelodonti are the drifters and vagabonds of Paleozoic phylospace -- a diverse, poorly known group of jawless fish of no fixed address on the phylogenetic tree, without established family or visible means of support.

Thelodonts are the most enigmatic of all Paleozoic jawless vertebrates, because their internal skeleton was not ossified and their exoskeleton was made up of minutes scales which were often dispersed during decay. Most thelodonts are not known from articulated specimens. We know them only from scattered scales.

†Order Thelodonti A little-known group of unknown affinities. Body covered in tiny scales; in some the body is flattened from top to bottom, in others from side to side. About 7 families. Early Silurian to Late Devonian (444–359 million years ago). Superclass Agnatha is…

Subclass Thelodonti. Fossil vertebrates of Russia and adjacent countries. Agnathans and early fisches. The reference book for palaeontologists and geologists, pp. 12-68. GEOS.

Thelodonts are an ensemble of fossil, presumably jawless vertebrates, distinguished from other jawless vertebrate taxa by the structure of their exoskeleton, which is entirely made up by minute scales. These scales are hollowed by a pulp cavity and …

Two of the thelodont genera, Angaralepis and Talimaalepis, as well as all the six species, are endemic and not known anywhere else in the world. They are accompanied by a variety of other peculiar early vertebrates, such as mongolepids, two endemic genera of acanthodians, and putative galeaspids.

Phylogeny: Thelodonti:: (Nikoliviidae + Furcacaudiformes) + *. Thelodontidae + (( Archipelepididae + Turiniidae ) + ( Apalolepididae + Lanarkia )). Characters: single pulp cavity [K02]; orthodentine [K02]; base narrower than crown [M86]; dentine tubules or canals open directly into large pulp cavity or depression [BG02]; neck usually distinct ...

Thelodonti (from Greek: "nipple teeth") is a class of extinct Palaeozoic jawless fishes with distinctive scales instead of large plates of armor. Among the flat-bodied forms are Lanarkia …

Thelodontiformes is an extinct order of jawless fish of the Silurian. [1] Because the paucity of intact fossils, especially since some families are known entirely from scale fossils, taxonomy of thelodonts is based primarily on scale morphology.