The 4.2 cm Priscomyzon riniensis holotype AM5750 is interpreted as a total-group lamprey; the profile does not promote it to crown Petromyzontida or a direct ancestor.
claim:taxon:priscomyzon:taxonomyPriscomyzon riniensis
A Famennian total-group lamprey known from one 4.2 cm body fossil with a preserved oral disc and branchial basket.
Represented range360–359 Ma
Content packageearly-fishes
PBDBtxn:91453
Evidence boundary
Automated checks cover structure, identifiers, translations and links only; maintainer and external expert review are not complete.
Claim ledger
AM5750 comes from the Famennian Witpoort Formation at Waterloo Farm in the Eastern Cape of South Africa; this is one sampled locality, not a global distribution.
claim:taxon:priscomyzon:biogeographyThe specimen documents an aquatic elongate body and oral apparatus, but diet, parasitism, migration, larval ecology and measured swimming performance remain unavailable.
claim:taxon:priscomyzon:ecologyAM5750 preserves a large oral disc, fourteen circumoral teeth and a branchial basket in a 4.2 cm body.
claim:taxon:priscomyzon:morphologyThe displayed 360–359 Ma interval is a rounded envelope for the Waterloo Farm holotype occurrence and is not a global species range or crown-lamprey first appearance.
claim:taxon:priscomyzon:fossil-rangeKnown limits
- A missing branch or fossil occurrence does not imply biological absence. Internal nodes are not calibrated divergence estimates.
References
- A lamprey from the Devonian period of South AfricaGess, R.W.; Coates, M.I.; Rubidge, B.S. · 2006 · DOI 10.1038/nature05150
- Open Tree of Life web servicesOpenTreeOfLife Project
- The Paleobiology Database application programming interfacePeters, S.E.; McClennen, M. · 2016 · DOI 10.1017/pab.2015.39
- Denormalized occurrence and taxon tables of the Paleobiology DatabaseThe Paleobiology Database Community; Kocsis, Á.T. · 2026 · DOI 10.5281/zenodo.21620933