Titanichthys agassizi

Taxobox
name = "Titanichthys"
fossil_range = Devonian

---

image width = 300px
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
subphylum = Vertebrata
infraphylum = Gnathostomata
classis = Placodermi
ordo = Arthrodira
subordo = Brachythoraci
infraordo = Coccosteina
superfamilia = Dinichthyloidea
familia = Titanichthyidae
familia_authority =
genus = "Titanichthys"
genus_authority =
species = "T. agassizi"
binomial = "Titanichthys agassizi"
binomial_authority =
synonyms ="Brontichthys"

"Titanichthys agassizi" was a giant, aberrant marine placoderm from the Late Devonian. It approached "Dunkleosteus" in size and build. Unlike its relative, however, "T. agassizi" had small, ineffective-looking 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 possibly krill-like zooplankton, 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 [See Janvier (1998) p.323 for details.] . A junior synonym is "Brontichthys", which should not be confused with another arthrodire, "Bruntonicthys" (Dinichthyidae).

Footnotes

References

* (2005): Mikko's Phylogeny Archive: [http://www.fmnh.helsinki.fi/users/haaramo/Metazoa/Deuterostoma/Chordata/Placodermi/Dinichthyloidea.htm †Dinichthyloidea] . Version of 2005-NOV-15. Retrieved 2007-SEP-13.
* (1998): "Early Vertebrates". Oxford University Press, Oxford, New York. ISBN 0-19-854047-7
* (1996): "The Rise of Fishes: 500 Million Years of Evolution". Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore. ISBN 0-8018-5438-5