Dunkleosteus
Dunkleosteus was a prehistoric arthrodire. It was a primitive fish from the later Devonian period, about 382.31 to 358.86 million years ago.[1] 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.[2]
| Dunkleosteus Temporal range: Devonian, Possible Early Givetian record
| |
|---|---|
| 250px | |
| Dunkleosteus skull, Queensland Museum | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Domain: | |
| Kingdom: | |
| Subphylum: | |
| Class: | |
| Order: | |
| Family: | |
| Genus: | †Dunkleosteus Lehman, 1956
|
| Type species | |
| †Dunkleosteus terrelli Newberry, 1873
| |
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.[3]
Description
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
- †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[3]
Dunkleosteus Media
- Dunkleosteus terrelli (fossil fish) (Cleveland Shale Member, Ohio Shale, Upper Devonian; Rocky River Valley, Cleveland, Ohio, USA) 25 (34091142396).jpg
Front view of D. terrelli skull
- Dunkleosteus skull steveoc.jpg
Labelled skull diagram of D. terrelli
- Dunkleosteus marsaisi 45.JPG
Fossil - Took the picture at Musee des Confluences, Lyon
- Dunkleosteus terrelli CMNH 5936.png
Partial lower jaw of CMNH 5936, the largest known individual of Dunkleosteus terrelli. Scale = 10 cm.
References
| 40x40px | Wikimedia Commons has media related to Lua error in Module:Commons_link at line 62: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).. |
| 40x40px | Wikispecies has information on: Dunkleosteus. |
- ↑ Dunkleosteus Newberry 1874. Fossilworks.
- ↑ Tamisiea, Jack (4 March 2023). "Dunk Was Chunky, but Still Deadly". The New York Times.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 "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.