The Late Devonian placoderm Aspidichthys Newberry, 1873 from the Holy Cross Mountains, Poland

Abstract. The reported placoderm remains from the Holy Cross Mountains, Poland, belong to the species Aspidichthys ingens Koenen, 1883. This study focuses on the material described in the past from Wietrznia Quarry but the new specimens were also collected form Kowala and Płucki localities. All specimens presented here differ from others described in the past, mainly by having smaller tubercles and possessing a distinctive crest in the anterior median part of the median dorsal plate, but did not allow the erection of a new taxon. Based on conodont assemblage, all specimens are attributed to a Frasnian age. Aspidichthys occurs in the middle to the upper part of the Frasnian (Palmatolepis punctata to P. linguiformis conodont zone) and is not found in the Famennian boundary. Described specimens also occur in a stepwise deepening environment caused by local synsedimentary tectonics.