alphynix:
A Dunkleosteus stops for a rest on the sea floor....
A Dunkleosteus stops for a rest on the sea floor. Because I don’t think I’ve ever seen a picture of it doing anything other than swimming menacingly, hunting other creatures, or (much less commonly) breaching.
Dunkleosteus was one of the largest of a group of armoured early fish called placoderms, reaching a length of up to 10m (33ft). It was quite widespread in the seas 380–360 million years ago, and was one of the first vertebrate apex predators.
It didn’t have teeth in its jaws, instead using bony plates to form a self-sharpening crushing beak-like structure — and giving it one of the strongest bite forces of any known animal.
The heavy armour plating on its head probably meant that it wasn’t a fast swimmer, suggesting that it was either an ambush hunter or it’s prey just wasn’t very fast either.
