Australia: The Land Where Time Began

A biography of the Australian continent 

Dinichthyids

Dunkeliosteus, an athrodiran placoderm, family Dinichthyidae from North America Dunkeliosteus, an athrodiran placoderm, family Dinichthyidae from North America

Dunkliosteus from the Devonian of North America, about 350 Ma, Queensland Museum, Brisbane

The Dinichthyidae were a family of large, possibly up to 30 ft long, arthrodiran placoderms with pachyosteomorph trunk shields and large pointed cusps on the upper and lower jawbones. Some forms had lost the spinal plate from the armour. Included in this family are the largest known placoderms Dunkliosteus and Gorgonicythys, the first animal to reach more than 8 m in length.

Dinichthys had head and chest shields that moved easily on each other at a pair of joints on the sides of the neck. A broad plate covered the chest region that was about 10.5 ft long.

Sources & Further reading

  1. John A Long The Rise of Fishes - 500 Million years of Evolution, University of New South Wales Press, 1995
  2. Alfred S. Romer, The Vertebrate Story, University of Chicago Press, 1959

Links

Dunkleosteus

 

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Last Updated 13/06/2010

 

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                                                                                           Author: M.H.Monroe  Email: admin@austhrutime.com     Sources & Further reading