| “ | That is a real leviathan there. A monstrous, armored plated fish called Dunkleosteus. | „ |
| — Allen, about Dunkleosteus in Age of Fishes II: Armored Fish | ||
Dunkleosteus (name meaning "Dunkle's Bones") is a genus of arthrodire placoderm fish that originated during the Late Devonian era in what is now North America, Europe, and Africa. The apex predator of the Devonian seas, Dunkleosteus was the largest placoderm to have existed, measuring over 9 meters long and weighing up to 5 tons.
In the Series 1 episode "Age of Fishes II: Armored Fish" a large female Dunkleosteus was brought to the park from Late Devonian Pennsylvania 360 million years ago. She resides in the Primeval Aquarium Enclosure. Two juveniles followed the team through the portal and were put into separate tanks.
Facts[]
Era & Discovery[]
Without doubt the largest and apex predator in its ecosystem, Dunkleosteus lived in North America, Europe, and Africa during the Late Devonian era, around 382 to 358 million years ago. For almost 25 million years, Dunkleosteus was at the top of the food chain, preying on animals such as other armored fish (Bothriolepis), primitive sharks (Stethacanthus), predatory fish (Hyneria), and even other Dunkleosteus. When the Devonian ended, Dunkleosteus and its species became extinct.
Dunkleosteus was first discovered in 1873 and was then named in 1956 in honor of its discoverer, David Dunkle, former curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.
Physical Attributes[]
Credited as a "real leviathan", Dunkleosteus was a massive animal, the largest of its kind, measuring over 30 feet (9 m) long and weighing at least 4 to 5 tons (8,000 to 11,000 lbs). It had a thick and withstanding armor-plated head. The rest of its body was bare flesh. Dunkleosteus interestingly did not possess any teeth at all - instead, its powerful and horrifying jaws were lined with teeth-like bony plate extensions that had evolved to form a deadly pair of savagely shaped shears that would close with awesome force to trap and indeed decapitate prey in its vice like jaws, shearing off chunks of meat and crushing bone. Dunkleosteus also had large, blue eyes; two pairs of large and powerful fins; and a short albeit long-running dorsal fin on its back.
Behavior & Traits[]
Dunkleosteus was a titanic predator, the largest predator in the Devonian in fact. What made it so powerful were its protective armour plating and its powerful jaws which contained several, teeth-like bony plates. These plates were used to grind and shear off pieces of flesh. Because of its strong jaws, Dunkleosteus could bite through armor plating as strong as chainmail. However, they couldn't digest those parts and would regurgitate the plates as well as any other inedible parts of its prey's anatomy, similar to some species of snakes. Due to the other lethal competition in the Devonian seas, Dunkleosteus would kill anything that got in its way. This even included its own kind. As a result, Dunkleosteus were often cannibalistic. Dunkleosteus is was clearly an apex predator of its day, feeding on literally everything it could get its jaws on, including smaller individuals of its own kind. Cannibalism would have been a trait of this monstrous fish.