Fossilized ontogenies: the contribution of placoderm ontogeny to our understanding of the evolution of early gnathostomes

Abstract Placoderms, representing phylogenetically more inclusive jawed vertebrates and successive sister taxa to crown‐group gnathostomes, are critical to our understanding of character evolution within the crown‐group (chondrichthyans + osteichthyans), including developmental characters. Early ontogenetic stages of placoderms are generally poorly known, although some exceptional faunas preserve both embryonic (e.g. from the G ogo F ormation, W estern A ustralia) and post‐embryonic individuals (the M iguasha F ormation, C anada; L ode F ormation, L atvia; M erriganowry F ormation, G ogo F ormation, A ustralia). Information provided by these ontogenies is relevant to questions of placoderm taxonomy and phylogeny, but also to broader questions pertinent to vertebrate evolution as a whole, for example, evolution of bone development, evolution of the axial skeleton and evolution of reproduction.