Name: Palaeoniscum
Age: Late Permian
Locations: Europe (England and Germany), Greenland and North America (USA)
Size: Length 30 cm
Cod is a marine, powerful swimming fish. Ancient fish. Primitive spiny fin fish. One dorsal fin, tail crooked type. The body is obliquely square with hard scales. The surface of the skull has enamel. The mouth has tapered sharp teeth. Feeds mainly on invertebrates. It lived from the middle Devonian to the early Cretaceous.
Shaped like a torpedo, the ancient cod has a high dorsal fin and a large fork in the tail, which is strong and powerful, and is a natural swimmer. It is most likely a ferocious predator of other freshwater bony fish. Its jaw is long with many sharp teeth that are replaced throughout life. Like all primitive rayfin fish, the ancient cod has a pair of swim bladders in its throat that can be used as a primitive buoyancy device when expanded.
Fossils of ancient cod