The species lived in estuaries during the Givetian epoch of the Middle Devonian, 390 million years ago in what is now the Georgina Basin of Western Queensland, Australia.

[1] The first specimens of P. doylei were empty sandstone casts of the head shields, with none of the original bone remaining.

The headshield extends posteriorly to form a long abdominal division which probably reached the anal region.

A unique characteristic of the Pituriaspida is a peculiar pit, which may have held some sort of sensory organ in life, located ventrally to the orbits, known as the adorbital depression.

Almost nothing is known of the rest of the body, save that it had a pair of well-developed pectoral fins, similar to osteostracans and gnathostome fish.