Dunkleosteus and the armoured fish
A six-metre placoderm with shearing bony blades for teeth becomes the ocean's apex predator.
- When
- Known to
- ± 8 million years
- Era
- Devonian, Paleozoic
Placoderms — fish encased in articulated bony plates — dominate Devonian seas, which is why the period is called the Age of Fishes. Dunkleosteus terrelli reached around six metres and a tonne, with no teeth but self-sharpening bony shears and one of the most powerful bites ever measured. Placoderms are devastated by the Kellwasser event and wiped out entirely at the Hangenberg, leaving no descendants at all.