Dunkleosteus terrelli was an armoured predator fish with bladed jaws instead of teeth that lived 360 million years ago. Researchers thought it was a 9-metre-long giant but it may have actually have been half that size
Life
28 February 2023
The fossilised skull of a Dunkleosteus Russell Engelman
One of the earliest vertebrate apex predators may not have been a giant after all.
Dunkleosteus terrelli – often portrayed as a 9-metre-long, armoured, shark-like predatory fish with bladed jaws instead of teeth – may have been a much smaller animal, with odd, chunky, shortened proportions.
The nearly dozen known species of Dunkleosteus are arthrodires, a variety of early fishes that reached their heyday in the Devonian period, more than 360 million years ago. They had rugged armour plating covering their heads and the front half …