Abstract

A large collection of bothriolepid antiarch material from 26 localities in the north-western part of the East European Platform (Latvia, Lithuania, and the Leningrad, Novgorod, and Pskov regions of Russia) is described and illustrated, with a critical treatment of previously described material. The genus GrossilepisStensiö, 1948 is represented by two species, Grossilepis tuberculata (Gross, 1941) and G. spinosa(Gross, 1942). All remaining material is referred to the genus Bothriolepis Eichwald, 1840: B. primaGross, 1942, B. obrutschewiGross, 1942, B. cellulosa(Pander inKeyserling, 1846), B. panderiLahusen, 1880, B. traudscholdi Jaekel, 1927, B. maximaGross, 1933, B. evaldiLyarskaja, 1986 come from the Givetian(?)-Frasnian deposits, and B. leptocheiracuronicaGross, 1942, B. ornataEichwald, 1840, B. jani Lukševičs, 1986, B. heckerin. sp., B. ciecereLyarskaja inLyarskaja & Savvaitova, 1974 as well as one unnamed form come from the Famennian sequence. The stratigraphic distribution of bothriolepids through the Middle/Upper Devonian of the Main Devonian Field is clarified in a proposed new version of the vertebrate zonation. A cladistic analysis of the distribution of several features within the family Bothriolepididae using the PHYLIP program package provides a new version of the interrelationships of bothriolepids.