This news first came up in the Science Reporter in February 1979. Part of the title “Fossil Fragments of Primitive Jawless Fish” is exactly what was there in the original article.
The article stated about John E Repetski of US Geological Survey, who discovered the fossils fragments an amazing creature… a fish that hadn’t had its jaws and used to live around 510 million years ago. Some fragments of the fish’s external plates were found in the rock collected in Crook Country in Wyoming, where there used be a warm sea before North America got its present position in the atlas. For millions of years, this warm sea had been natural thriving place for great varieties of plants and animal lives.
Repetski claimed that the fish in question was the world’s oldest known vertebrates and believed to have been sharing the oceans of the late Cambrian period with trilobites and other primitive invertebrates. Repetski’s discoveries include around 2 dozens of fragments that he termed as Anatolepis. Although the fishy nature of Anatopelis has always been in many disputes, with some scientists suggesting that the fragments actually belonged to a Crustacean, and not to a fish-like vertebrate, but later the issue was resolved with a confirmed conclusion that Anatolepis was a vertebrate indeed. By scientific analysis of the fragments, it was found that the creature was of bony composition, which strongly indicated that they came from a vertebrate.
Radioactive dating of the fossil fragments indicated that this fish used to be there around middle late Cambrian age – some 510 million years ago. Repetski said that the fish was about 7.5 cm long and had a protective hard covering that acted as a shield or armor for the creature. The scales were attached to this hard covering and probably the middle and the rear part of the body was covered with smaller plates that helped the fish in locomotion. Repetski concluded that the Wyoming fish was apparently very much similar to the primitive fish that had been reported in Australia, which was believed to have been in existence about 480 million years ago.
The article stated about John E Repetski of US Geological Survey, who discovered the fossils fragments an amazing creature… a fish that hadn’t had its jaws and used to live around 510 million years ago. Some fragments of the fish’s external plates were found in the rock collected in Crook Country in Wyoming, where there used be a warm sea before North America got its present position in the atlas. For millions of years, this warm sea had been natural thriving place for great varieties of plants and animal lives.
Repetski claimed that the fish in question was the world’s oldest known vertebrates and believed to have been sharing the oceans of the late Cambrian period with trilobites and other primitive invertebrates. Repetski’s discoveries include around 2 dozens of fragments that he termed as Anatolepis. Although the fishy nature of Anatopelis has always been in many disputes, with some scientists suggesting that the fragments actually belonged to a Crustacean, and not to a fish-like vertebrate, but later the issue was resolved with a confirmed conclusion that Anatolepis was a vertebrate indeed. By scientific analysis of the fragments, it was found that the creature was of bony composition, which strongly indicated that they came from a vertebrate.
Radioactive dating of the fossil fragments indicated that this fish used to be there around middle late Cambrian age – some 510 million years ago. Repetski said that the fish was about 7.5 cm long and had a protective hard covering that acted as a shield or armor for the creature. The scales were attached to this hard covering and probably the middle and the rear part of the body was covered with smaller plates that helped the fish in locomotion. Repetski concluded that the Wyoming fish was apparently very much similar to the primitive fish that had been reported in Australia, which was believed to have been in existence about 480 million years ago.
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