Homostiidae
family of fishes (fossil)
Homostiidae (alternatively spelled Homosteidae) is a family of flattened arthrodire placoderms from the Early to Middle Devonian. Fossils appear in various strata in Europe, Russia, Morocco, Australia, Canada and Greenland.
Homostiids have flattened and elongated skulls, "toothless" jaws and large sizes, suggesting that many were probably filter feeders, similar to the noticeably flattened whale shark. According to Denison 1978, primitive homostiids have moderately long median dorsal plates, whereas in "advanced" homostiids, the median dorsal tends to be short and broad.
Classification
The family Homostiidae is considered the basal-most grouping within the suborder Brachythoraci, basal to the large sub-clade Eubrachythoraci, which includes the well-known Dunkleosteus, Dinichthys, etc. Homostiidae's placement within Brachythoraci can be shown in the cladogram below:
Genera
Angarichthys
A comparatively large animal from the Middle Devonian of Siberia, with a head shield estimated around 40 centimeters long. Known only from an infragnathal bone, and an intero-lateral and a marginal plate.
Antineosteus
A primitive homostiid from Emsian-aged strata of Morocco. Antineosteus' primitive anatomical features suggest it may be a precursor to Angarichthys, Atlantidosteus and Homosteus. Antineosteus lived sympatrically with the Moroccan species of Atlantidosteus.
The public source identifies “Homostiidae” as family of fishes (fossil). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Homostiidae, family and fishes.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 18, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q16983286. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1978.
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This entry incorporates text from “Homostiidae” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.