The life restoration of the Parayunnanolepis xitunensis

Parayunnanolepis xitunensis, a small (~6cm long), armour-cladded benthic fish from the Lower Devonian of Qujing, Yunnan,  ~410 million years ago. This fish was preserved in complete, head-to-tail, including the fins and scales. Most of its body is wrapped in bony plates, and the eyes, nose are all crowed inside one big opening on the top of the head. This strange-looking fish was featured in the BBC documentary The Rise of Animals, produced and narrated by Sir David Attenborough. We obtained the MicroCT scan data of this remarkable fossil, the detailed morphology of individual bones and scales in situ allows an unprecedently comprehensive, accurate, and exquisite restoration of the small ancient fish, seen in here. The rendering was chosen as the cover art by the journal Vertebrata PalAsiatica.