Jamoytius kerwoodi is an extinct species of primitive, eel-like jawless fish known from the Patrick Burn Formation in Scotland, dating to the Llandovery epoch of the Early Silurian period.
Long thought of as a "basal anaspid," J. kerwoodi is now recognized as the best-known member of the Hyperoartian order Jamoytiiformes.
Earlier reconstructions depict the creature as having side-fins running the length of its body, starting from behind the branchial openings to the tip of its tail: new research demonstrates that such "fins" are actually deformations of the bodywall as the corpse was being squished post-burial.
Because the fossil had no teeth, teeth-like structures, nor suggestions of either in its mouth, it was not carnivorous like many modern lampreys.
The fish had a cartilaginous skeleton, and a branchial basket resembling the cyclostomes - features that suggest that it was a basal member of that clade.