The dunkleosteus is a cast and mold fossil. Fossil remains that have been found are the head plates and neck armor which were excavated in North America, Western Europe, and Northern Africa. They lived nearly 25 million years in the Devonian period. The dunkleosteus is a lot alike to our shark today as both are very aggressive and high on the food chain. When food was short in the ocean dunkleosteus would feed off of each other. The dunkleosteus could grow to be at least 20-30 feet in length and had hard shell like casing around the head and neck.

The Dunkleosteus is a large fish found in the ocean. While its body is similar to a standard fish with an eel-like tail, its head makes the fossil very distinct. The Dunkleosteus's head is totally armoured, except for the eyes. Where most animals have teeth, massive jagged plates of bone exist in its mouth to crush the shells and bones of its prey. These teeth are used by the creature to crush rocks and oil nodes. The Dunkleosteus is slightly larger than a Megalodon, another predator that swims the same waters. The Dunkleosteus likely resembled a large, underwater tank, with a thick body, bulging head and massive, toothless jaws. Dunkleosteus wouldn't have had to be a particularly good swimmer, since its bony armor would have been good enough defense against the smaller sharks and fish. …show more content…
Its armored flesh was nearly impossible to be puncture by any of its enemies and it had a tremendous bite force. Which brings up the question of why did these animals go extinct? And paleontologists have come up with an answer to that question. They believe this fish went extinct because oxygen levels in the ocean dropped significantly. This would have killed off giant fish like this one but allowed smaller ones to thrive. And that is why smaller fish would dominate for tens of millions of