Ancient fish from the Silurian period provide evolutionary insights.
. Among them, he found fragments of fossil fish jaws, spines and scales that he noted were “the most ancient beings of their class” and “wholly unlike” the remains found in overlying rock strata.
Murchison’s Silurian scraps contrasted with the abundant, well-preserved fossils of jawed fishes known from younger deposits. Nearly two centuries of palaeontological efforts worldwide have reinforced this pattern.
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