#leedsychthys

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Leedsichthys 

Leedsichthys is a giant member of the Pachycormidae, an extinct group of Mesozoic ray-finned fish that lived in the oceans of the Middle Jurassic period. 

Leedsichthys fossils have been difficult to interpret because the skeletons were not completely made of bone. Large parts consisted of cartilage that did not fossilize. On several occasions the enigmatic large partial remains have been mistaken for stegosaurian dinosaur bones. As the vertebrae are among the parts that have not been preserved, it is hard to determine the total body length. 

It is generally accepted that Leedsichthys is the largest known member of the Osteichthyes or bony fishes, likely reaching a length of 9-10 m.

Like the largest fish today, the whale sharks and basking sharks, Leedsichthys problematicus derived its nutrition as a suspension feeder, using an array of specialised gill rakers lining its gill basket to extract zooplankton, small animals, from the water passing through its mouth and across its gills. It is less clear whether also phytoplankton, algae, were part of the diet. Leedsichthys could have been a ram feeder, making the water pass through its gills by swimming, but could also have actively pumped the water through the gill basket...

Read more: Wikipedia

illustrations by Dmitry Bogdanov