The dentitions of extant fishes and land vertebrates vary in both pattern and type of tooth replacement. It has been argued that the common ancestral condition likely resembles the nonmarginal, radially arranged tooth files of arthrodires, an early group of armoured fishes. We used synchrotron microtomography to describe the fossil dentitions of so-called acanthothoracids, the most phylogenetically basal jawed vertebrates with teeth, belonging to the genera Radotina, Kosoraspis, and Tlamaspis (from the Early Devonian of the Czech Republic). Their dentitions differ fundamentally from those of arthrodires; they are marginal, carried by a cheekbone or a series of short dermal bones along the jaw edges, and teeth are added lingually as is the case in many chondrichthyans (cartilaginous fishes) and osteichthyans (bony fishes and tetrapods). We propose these characteristics as ancestral for all jawed vertebrates.
The occurrence of placoderms in the Prague Basin (Bohemian Massif; Czech Republic) shows a very unsteady distribution in space and time. The most abundant specimens are in the Lochkovian and, through decrease in the Pragian, they become rare towards the Givetian. The primitive acanthothoracids dominating in the Lochkovian and Pragian are completely replaced by arthrodires at the beginning of the Emsian. All placoderms in the Prague Basin, without any regard to their dimensions, had smooth jaws which is a proof of their non-predatory feeding habit. Although placoderm diversity is generally considered to reflect the Devonian nekton revolution, the abundance of these vertebrates in the Prague Basin displays a decrease, i.e. an inverse tendency to the global one.
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