Placoderms dominated the oceans, rivers and lakes for some 80 million years, before their sudden extinction around 359 million years ago. This is possibly due to the depletion of trace elements in ...

The oldest placoderms favoured a fast-closing mouth for catching prey. But some placoderms started feeding on durophagous animals, with hard shells and exoskeletons, and others may have been ...

You might take it for granted now, but your jaw is the result of an evolutionary journey lasting over 400 million years. Life reconstruction of Qilinyu, a 423-million-year-old fish from the Kuanti ...

Placoderms were also the first animals with a backbone to have jaws. Researchers have suggested that the jaw evolved to help the male grab hold of females and stabilize them during mating, only later ...

Placoderms were fearsome looking creatures, with powerful nutcracker jaws, clad in bony armour plating and thought to be efficient predators.

Placoderms have often been reconstructed based on comparisons with sharks. But the two may have behaved more differently than previously thought. Mr. Engelman said: "Mouth size is probably the biggest ...

Placoderms were the world’s first megapredators, with ancient behemoths such as Dunkleosteus reaching the same size as today’s Great White Shark. They were also the first vertebrate animals on Earth ...

Our study supports the hypothesis on the right, where placoderms are instead a distinct side branch. Benedict King and Brian Choo, Flinders University The iconic placoderm Dunkleosteus.

Alienacanthus is a member of an extinct group of fish called placoderms, which are some of the first jawed vertebrates. They are armoured fish of various shapes and sizes and are essential to ...

Unlike in other placoderms, the upper jaws of Alienacanthus were capable of a slight movement independently of the skull, helping to accommodate the lower jaw. Most extreme case The extended lower jaw ...

Unlike in other placoderms, the upper jaws of Alienacanthus were capable of a slight movement independently of the skull, helping to accommodate the lower jaw. Most extreme case The extended lower jaw ...