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{{Italictitle}}[[File:Dunkleosteus_interm1DB.jpg|thumb|354px|Restoration]]'''''Dunkleosteus''''' ("Dunkle's bone") was a placoderm fish of the Late Devonian. ==Description== ''Dunkleosteus'' measured 10 meters long and weighed 4 tons. Like other placoderms, they were heavily armored, and only the large skull plates are preserved as fossils. ''Dunkleosteus'' had no teeth, but rather sharp extensions of the jaws. These plates could bite at a pressure of 8,000 pounds per square inch, the second most powerful bite of any fish to have existed. This pressure puts the bite force of ''Dunkleosteus'' in the same league as that of predators such as ''[[Tyrannosaurus]]''.<ref>Roy Britt, Robert (28 November 2006). "Prehistoric Fish Had Most Powerful Jaws". LiveScience. http://www.livescience.com/animals/061128_big_bite.html.</ref> ==Classification and Discovery== [[File:Dunkleosteus_skull.jpg|thumb|334px|Skull and armor plating of ''Dunkleosteus'']]''Dunkleosteus'' was originally described as ''Dinichthys terrelli'' in 1873.<ref>Branson, E. B. 1908: Notes on Dinichthys terrelli with a restoration.The Ohio Naturalist 8(8): 363-369.</ref> However, the two species were separated in 1956, and the new name honored David Dunkle, who was then a paleontology curator of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. Even today most specimens of ''Dunkleosteus'' still reside in this museum. ''Dunkleosteus'' was part of the placoderm group, among the first jawed fish to exist. There are three (possibly four) species of ''Dunkleosteus'' known to exist so far. ==Paleobiology== ===Diet=== ''Dunkleosteus'' was a carnivore, feeding on other placoderms and crushing through their armor. Fossil evidence suggests that they cannibalized each other when the opportunity presented itself, and that any armor was regurgitated instead of being digested.<ref> "Dunkleosteus Placodermi Devonian Armored Fish from Morocco". Fossil Archives. The Virtual Fossil Museum. http://www.fossilmuseum.net/Fossil_Galleries/Fish_Devonian/Dunkleosteous/Dunkleosteus.htm.</ref> It is believed that ''Dunkleosteus'' underwent a change of diet as it aged. Jaw morphologies suggest that a juvenile's jaws were stiff and it fed on soft-bodied organisms. The jaws of adults were better able to hold and crush through harder prey.<ref>Shape variation between arthrodire morphotypes indicates possible feeding niches by Philip S. L. Anderson, Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology volume 28, #4.</ref> ''Dunkleosteus'' could open its mouth in about 1/50th of a second. The resulting suction would have pulled prey directly into its mouth. This is a technique still used by species of fish today. ==References== {{reflist}} [[Category:Animals]] [[Category:Fish]] [[Category:Carnivores]] [[Category:Fossil taxa described in 1873]]
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