Angelacanthus

Angelacanthus acus (formerly Diplacanthus acus)^[1] is a species of Devonian acanthodian from the Waterloo Farm lagerstätte in South Africa. It is the only species in the genus Angelacanthus.

Angelacanthus Temporal range: Famennian PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
Fossil of Angelacanthus
Life restoration
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Chondrichthyes
Subclass:	†Acanthodii
Order:	†Diplacanthiformes
Family:	†Diplacanthidae
Genus:	†Angelacanthus Gess and Burrow, 2025
Species:	†A. acus
Binomial name
†Angelacanthus acus (Gess, 2001)
Synonyms
Diplacanthus acus Gess, 2001

Description

Angelacanthus was described from a near complete whole-bodied impression discovered in 1999 during roadworks cutting the Waterloo Farm lagerstätte.^[2] The type specimen of Angelacanthus is approximately 100 mm long and has exceptionally long and thin ribbed spines. The intermediate spines are, conversely, extremely reduced.^[3] Unusually it preserves complete outlines of many of the fins.