The most famous of the placoderms was the Dunkleosteus, one of the first apex predators of the ancient oceans. The Dunkleosteus did not have teeth, instead using its armored jaw pieces to slice into prey like a large, very powerful pair of scissors (jaw cast pictured here) . Like all placoderms, the fossil evidence for the Dunkleosteus is generally limited to the fossil armored plates, which has left the “Dunk”’s true size up for debate. The current consensus is that they were comparable in size to a modern Great White Shark with stout, chunky proportions. Ultimately, the Dunkleosteus went extinct at the end of the Devonian due to extreme climate change
The most famous of the placoderms was the Dunkleosteus, one of the first apex predators of the ancient oceans. The Dunkleosteus did not have teeth, instead using its armored jaw pieces to slice into prey like a large, very powerful pair of scissors (jaw cast pictured here) . Like all placoderms, the fossil evidence for the Dunkleosteus is generally limited to the fossil armored plates, which has left the “Dunk”’s true size up for debate. The current consensus is that they were comparable in size to a modern Great White Shark with stout, chunky proportions. Ultimately, the Dunkleosteus went extinct at the end of the Devonian due to extreme climate change