A new genus of placoderm (Arthrodira: 'Actinolepida') from the Lower Devonian of Podolia (Ukraine)

A new genus of ‘actinolepid’ arthrodire placoderm, Erikaspis, is named to contain “Kujdanowiaspis”zychi Stensiö, 1945, from the Lochkovian–Pragian deposits (Lower Devonian) of Podolia (Ukraine). This new genus occurs together with the genus Kujdanowiaspis Stensiö, 1942, to which its type species was previously assigned. Distinc tive ornamentation and pattern of dermal plates justify this new assignment. A phylogenetic analysis places Erikaspis, gen.nov., as a close relative of Kujdanowiaspis and of the contemporaneous species Sigaspis lepidophora Goujet, 1973, from Spitsbergen, all of them belonging to the family Kujdanowiaspididae Berg, 1955.