In Depth Melanosteus seems to have been a fairly small genus of arthrodire placoderm fish that had a near global distribution early from the Silurian to Devonian periods. As an arthrodire placoderm fish, Melanosteus was likely a predator of other aquatic organisms. Melanosteus was named after the Montagne Noire (Black Mountains) of France near where … Read more
In Depth Like with may early discovered prehistoric animals such as the dinosaur Megalosaurus, and the pterosaur Pterodactylus, Dinichthys suffered from the waste basket taxon effect. This is where sets of remains that look similar to the holotype are assigned to the genus, but upon closer inspection they turn out to actually represent different animals. … Read more
In Depth Potangaspis is a genus of arthrodire placoderm fish that lived in China during the Devonian. Further Reading - A new antarctaspid arthrodire (placoderm fish) from the Lower Devonian of Guangxi, China. - Vertebrata PalAsiatica 48 (2): 101–110. - Zhu Min, Wang Jun-Qing & Wang Shi-Tao - 2010.
In Depth Tubonasus is a genus of arthrodire placoderm fish that lived in Australia during the Late Devonian. Tubonasus is noted for having a long snout, however, Tubonasus did not take this to the extreme like in some genera such as Rolfosteus. Further Reading - Eubrachythoracid arthrodires with tubular rostra1 plates from Gogo, Western Australia. … Read more
In Depth Groenlandaspis was first discovered in Greenland, but since this time individual specimens have been found from across Europe, Australia and Antarctica, indicating a possibly global distribution of this genus. Groenlandaspis was an arthrodire placoderm, which means that it had a jointed neck, something that allowed arthordire placoderms to open their mouths very wide. … Read more
In Depth Actinolepis is a genus of placoderm fish that lived during the Devonian period. Fossils of Actinolepis have usually been more associated with Eastern Europe, but at least one species of Actinolepis is known from fossil deposits in New Zealand. It is worth remembering that back in the Devonian the planets land masses were … Read more
In Depth about Dunkleosteus In modern popular culture, Dunkleosteus is by far the best known and most often represented of the early placoderm carnivores. However Dunkleosteus actually sat within the Dinichthys genus for a long time as the species Dinichthys terrelli. It was not until the large numbers of Dinichthys remains were re-studied that it was realised that a large number of the Dinichthys fossils actually represented different … Read more
In Depth While Titanichthys appears to have been as large as the fearsome Dunkleosteus, it does not seem to have had the same apex predator lifestyle. Whereas Dunkleosteus had jaws that where incredibly sharp for biting through the armour of other bony placoderms, the jaws of Titanichthys were actually very blunt in comparison. A possible … Read more