Dunkleosteus was a prehistoric arthrodire. It was a primitive fish from the later Devonian period, about 360 million years ago. It was a heavily armoured placoderm. Fossils have been found in Morocco, Africa, Poland, Belgium, China, and the USA. This fish was a pelagic creature living in open waters, and one of the first vertebrate apex predators of any ecosystem.[1]
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| Dunkleosteus skull, Queensland Museum | |
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| Genus: | †Dunkleosteus Lehman, 1956
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| †Dunkleosteus terrelli Newberry, 1873
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Dunkleosteus first appeared in the Late Silurian, and the group became extinct during the transition from the Late Devonian to the Late Carboniferous, leaving no descendants. It lasted barely 50 million years compared to the 400 million year-long history of sharks. It preyed on Stethacanthus and Cladoselache.
One new species from 2023, D. tuderensis, was named based on an infragnathal from the Famennian of the Tver Oblast, Russia.[2]
Description
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This top predator was up to 11.5 ft (3.5 m) long and had large, scissor-like cutting jaws with serrated, razor-sharp bones but no teeth. Its skull was over 2 feet (65 cm) long. It had a jointed neck, an eel-like tail, a scale-less body, and hinged body shields.
Species
change- †D. amblyodoratus Carr & Hlavin, 2010
- †D. belgicus (?) (Newberry, 1873)
- †D. denisoni (Kulczycki, 1957)
- †D. magnificus (Hussakof & Bryant, 1919)
- †D. marsaisi Lehmann, 1956
- †D. missouriensis (Branson, 1914)
- †D. newberryi (Clarke, 1885)
- †D. raveri Carr & Hlavin, 2010
- †D. terrelli (Newberry, 1873 [originally Dinichthys])
- †D. tuderensis Lebedev et. al., 2023[2]
References
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- ↑ Tamisiea, Jack (4 March 2023). "Dunk Was Chunky, but Still Deadly". The New York Times.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Structure, Growth and Histology of Gnathal Elements in Dunkleosteus (Arthrodira, Placodermi), with a Description of a New Species from the Famennian (Upper Devonian) of the Tver Region (North-Western Russia)". Paleoecology, Diversity, Taphonomy, Phylogeny, and Evolution of Paleozoic Fishes.