Mongolepidida
Mongolepidida is an order of very primitive cartilaginous fishes (chondrichthyans) that lived in Asia and North America during the late Ordovician to early Silurian periods, roughly from the Sandbian to the Sheinwoodian stages. Today they are known only from fossil scales, so their full body shape is unknown.
The oldest scales belong to Solinalepis levis from the Sandbian, making Mongolepidida among the oldest chondrichthyans we know. Several genera are known only from these scales, including Mongolepis, Teslepis, Sodolepis, and Rongolepis. Some species described from scales include Mongolepis rozmanae, Teslepis jucunda, Sodolepis lucens, and Rongolepis cosmetica.
Taxonomically, Mongolepidida is in the Kingdom Animalia, Phylum Chordata, Class Chondrichthyes, and was established as an order in 1990 by Karatajūtė-Talimaa, Novitskaya, Rozman & Sodov.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 05:19 (CET).