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Natural Science Forum / Biology / Paleontology / August 2005Dunkleosteus questions
As a writer on zoological discoveries, which inevitably includes the "living fossils," I became curious about the biggest and baddest of the Devonian predators, our bone-headed friend Dunkleosteus. In the references available online, I was surprised to see a couple of strikingly different reconstructions - forked tail, eel-like tail, prominent dorsal fin, very low dorsal fin. I would have thought we had enough good skeletal remains of this critter to create a definitive portrait. Does anyone know if there's a "definitive" reconstruction that's generally agreed on? Thanks, Matt Bille > As a writer on zoological discoveries, which inevitably includes the > "living fossils," I became curious about the biggest and baddest of the [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > portrait. Does anyone know if there's a "definitive" reconstruction > that's generally agreed on? Dunkleosteus is known from the massive bones making up its head shield and, I believe, nothing else. According to this site, the axial skeleton of arthrodires in general is nearly unknown: http://www.palaeos.com/Vertebrates/Units/Unit060/060.100.html My suspicion is that the postcranial appearance of Dunkleosteus is extrapolated from the few placoderms with known postcranial material, and I think none of those are even arthrodires. That would be like reconstructing the human body based on a kangaroo. Thanks. The link you supplied links to some articles in Science debating the question of whether arthrodires may have had, not gnathal cutting plates, but the biggest teeth in history. That seems a surprising and unusually great evolutionary leap from the other six orders of placoderms, but the debate gets into technical matters I have no ability to evaluate. Author Richard Ellis summed up the animal well by describing the jaws as looking like giant staple removers. Regards Matt Bille Thanks. The link you supplied links to some articles in Science debating the question of whether arthrodires may have had, not gnathal cutting plates, but the biggest teeth in history. That seems a surprising and unusually great evolutionary leap from the other six orders of placoderms, but the debate gets into technical matters I have no ability to evaluate. Author Richard Ellis summed up the animal well by describing the jaws as looking like giant staple removers. Regards Matt Bille |
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