#armoured fish

[ppaleoartistgallery]

#Paleostream 1/02/2025

Here's this week's #Paleostream sketches!!! (i had to leave early + the past few days have been pretty busy so posting was delayed)

this week we sketched Ophthalmosaurus, Spriggina, Bothriolepis, and Homunculus

[rufinator]

Smaugest: Devonian

[joeycbang]

Groenlandaspis, pencil on paper (click for better quality)

[palaeonecromancy]

Happy Fossil Friday!

Who: Dunkleosteus sp.

name meaning: "Dunkle's bone"

pronunciation: Duncle-oss-tee-us

What: One of the most famous placoderms, or armored fish.

When: Late Devonian Period

Where: North America, Poland, Belgium, and Morocco. Best known from the Cleveland Shale.

Why are they cool?: Reaching lengths of up to 9 metres long it possessed thoracic and cranial armour (covering just anterior to the abdomen to the head). This armour consisted of bony plates that protected the head and neck and formed points over the jaw, like built in, armoured teeth for grasping and slicing.

Here is a link to a course on early vertebrate development and bony fishes from the Devonian and other periods, it is a wonderful MOOC (massive open online course) created by the University of Alberta, check it out if you want to learn more about Dunkle and his relatives!

Image Credits: (Left: M. Cross. Right: Figure 9 from Week 3 course notes of Paleontology: Early Vertebrate Evolution on Coursera.com)

[theseagull16]

Dunkleosteus was an giant armoured fish about the size of a large shark that's looked as dangerous as a pair of blades. And that because it's teeth were like blades. It was so aggressive that it even eaten its own kind.