Titanichthys

From Palaeos

Placodermi
`--Arthrodira
   `--Eubrachythoraci
      `--Pachyosteomorphi
         |--Erromenosteus
         |--Dinichthyidae
         |--Trematosteidae
         `--Aspinothoraci
            `--Titanichthys

Titanichthys agassizi was a giant, abberant marine placoderm from the Late Devonian. It approached Dunkleosteus in size and build. Unlike its relative, however, T. agassizi had short mouth-plates that lacked a sharp cutting edge. It is presumed that the beast used its capacious mouth to swallow or inhale schools of small, anchovy-like fish, or other zooplankters, and that the mouth-plates retained the prey while allowing the water to escape as it closed its mouth.

When the first specimens were found in Morocco by geologist Henri Termier, Titanichthys was originally placed within the genus Gorgonichthys, that is, after Termier was able to convince his colleagues that the bone scraps were of a placoderm, and not a dinosaur (Janvier p. 323). A synonym is "Brontichthys."

Reference

• Janvier, Philippe. Early Vertebrates Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, 1998. ISBN 0-19-854047-7
• Long, John A. The Rise of Fishes: 500 Million Years of Evolution Baltimore: The John Hopkins University Press, 1996. ISBN 0-8018-5438-5

External Links

Mikko's Phylogeny Archive [1]