ANIMAL HISTORY

Agnathans, or jawless fish, were the earliest fish: an excellent fossil of Haikouichthys ercaicunensis dates back about 530 million years, to the Cambrian. Previously the earliest-known agnathans were dated to around 480 million years ago. Agnathans have traditionally been placed with the vertebrates due to the presence of a skull, although the modern forms such as hagfish lack a vertebral column. The earliest agnathans were Ostracoderms. They were bottom-feeders and were almost entirely covered in armour plates. When the sharks and bony fish began to evolve, around 450 million years ago, most ostracoderms became extinct. Only the lineage that produced the modern hagfish and lampreys survive.