myllokunmingiids

Myllokunmingiids are an extinct group of jawless fish that lived during the Cambrian period, approximately 530 to 515 million years ago. They are primarily known from fossils found in the Chengjiang Biota of China, a lagerstätte famous for its exceptionally preserved early animal life. These ancient fish are considered among the earliest known vertebrates, offering crucial insights into the origins of the vertebrate lineage.

These creatures were small, typically only a few centimeters in length. They possessed a distinctive eel-like body shape with a series of fins running along their dorsal and ventral sides. A key characteristic of myllokunmingiids is the absence of jaws, a feature shared with other early jawless fish like conodonts and ostracoderms. Their mouths were likely adapted for filter-feeding or scavenging on the seabed.

The fossil evidence suggests myllokunmingiids had a cartilaginous skeleton, which is rarely preserved but indicated by the overall morphology. They possessed simple eyes and what appear to be pharyngeal arches, which may have been involved in respiration and filter-feeding. The discovery of myllokunmingiids has significantly advanced our understanding of early vertebrate evolution, providing a glimpse into the transitional forms that existed before the development of jaws and other more complex vertebrate features. Their presence in the Cambrian highlights the rapid diversification of life during the Cambrian Explosion.