However, although called a fish, The Dunn's fish is almost completely different from the fish that most of us think of. Many people have the impression that the most typical fish is boiled fish or sauerkraut fish... Ah no, crucian carp or sharks, which represent the two most representative taxa of living fish, respectively: teleost fish and cartilaginous fish.
In the rivers and lakes of the Devonian Period, there are all kinds of "fish", such as armor fish, shield fish, spiny fish, etc., if these strange-looking guys gather together, it will really give people a dazzling feeling. At that time, the earth was also known as the "Fish Age", and the Dunn's fish could be said to be the well-deserved "overlord" of shield fish.
The genus Cephalaspis, covered with exotic carapaces, was painted by Robert Chambers | Wikimedia Commons
Someone who has seen the fossil dungeon fish, its huge head must be unforgettable, this is such a fierce and impactful face: the head and part of the torso are wrapped in several thick bone plates, like a demon's helmet, the defense is simply impeccable, which is why the taxa of Dunn's fish is called shield fish. There are some gaps between the bone pieces of the head and the chest, which are connected by soft tissues while it is alive, allowing the large head to move more flexibly.
At the very front end of the blood basin mouth, there are several "teeth", which are not really teeth, but an extension of the bone plate at the front of the upper and lower jaws, and some people think that whenever this large mouth is opened and closed, the bone pieces at the front end will rub against each other, so that these "big teeth" are sharp and abnormal. If this giant fish is still alive, just looking at you can make you shudder. At that time, the ocean may have been like a huge cafeteria in the eyes of Dunn's Fish, and the biggest headache for him every day was choosing what to eat today.
Fossils of Dunn's fish, housed in the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology | IJReid / Wikimedia Commons
How fierce are the big fish?
What we know about Dunn's fish comes only from its large head, part of its trunk and a small part of its pectoral fin, and no fossils of the second half of the body have been found, and paleontologists estimate that the Body Length of Dunn's Fish may be 5-8 meters and weigh 3.5-4 tons. Perhaps only when more fossil evidence is discovered will we know how heavy the Dunn's fish weighs.
Many marketing numbers and stall literature will write how the Dunn's fish is fierce; the bite force is XX times that of the Tyrannosaurus rex (which may also be other more famous animals); if it survives until now, it can sweep the ocean; the shark is a slag with only 5 combat power in front of the Dunn's fish; etc...
The dunn's fish restoration map compares with the size of humans | Tim Bertelink / Wikimedia Commons
No blowing or black, some paleontologists have studied fossils to restore the muscle tissue of the head of the Dunn's fish, and tested the data, showing that the Dunn's fish has a terrible bite force. A 2017 study speculated that the bite force at the front of the bone plate "teeth" could reach 6,000 Niu. We may not have any concept of boring numbers, we can refer to it: the bite force of the Blue Star Waste Wood Two-legged Beast is about 1,000 cattle, the bite force of the largest crocodile bay crocodile is about 16,000 cattle, the great white shark has 18,000 cattle (speculative value rather than actual value), and the Tyrannosaurus Rex who is thrown a few streets by Dun's fish can reach 57,000 cattle.
In addition, some relatively new research results, based on fossils of a small part of the pectoral fin of Dunn's fish and conjectures about the morphology of the tail fin, suggest that although the Dunn's fish is large, it is a fast-moving predator rather than a bulky "meat tank". Thinking about it this way, this "strange fish" is even more frightening.
Of course, different test methods may have an impact on the numerical value, and the speculation of paleontological fossils may be more error-oriented, and these data are for entertainment only.
Dan Erickson's model of Dunn's fish is housed in the cleveland Museum of Natural History | Tim Evanson / Wikimedia Commons
However, the competitiveness and adaptability of an animal should be measured from many aspects, not the bite force, so this ranking is good as entertainment after tea and dinner, and it is not serious.
The physical characteristics of a species are the performance of adapting to the environment by the environment in which they are located, not to "fight" or "compete" with another species. The same is true of the Dunn's fish, whose body structure is entirely to adapt to the marine environment of the time and does not need to compete with species of different periods. Maybe in some data, Deng's fish seems to be outstanding, but this comparison is like Guan Gong fighting Qin Qiong, even if Guan Yu can fight again, but I drive a tank over, Guan Er Ye estimated that he could only surrender. From this point of view, in fact, each species is strong, they have evolved a variety of "unique skills" in order to adapt to the environment, and survive in the harsh natural competition.
Great white sharks, full-headed suborder Helicoprion and Dunn's fish | RobinGoodfellow_(m) / Flickr
Shield fish represented by The Dunn's fish flourished in the Devonian Period, developing many species and adapting to various ecological niches, such as the grooved scale fish that can maintain a balance of the body at the bottom of the water with pectoral fins, and the equally large but filter-fed baron fish. However, in the mass extinction at the end of the Devonian Period 370 million years ago, shield fish quietly stepped off the stage of Earth's history and became extinct.