Saturday, June 11, 2011

Doryaspis.

Doryaspis was a weird jawless placoderm Heterostracan with a mouth on top of its saw, and two fin-like appendages that could have worked as pectoral fins. But they were not fins, they were part of the head armor. 


Like all placoderms, except for the giant placoderms like Dunkleosteus and Titanichthys, it had to stay near the bottom because of its heavy head armor.


This image shows a different Doryaspis. But all the species of Doryaspsis are pretty much the same. All the species of Doryaspis have two pectoral spines and one spine right under the mouth in front of their head. Which is why Doryaspsis's mouth probably had to point up. 

Posted by Art at 10:09 AM
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6 comments:

  1. FlavorDavJune 13, 2011 at 12:06 PM

    How large were these? You should make a chart sometime showing the relative sizes of all these creatures.

    ReplyDelete
  2. ArtJune 13, 2011 at 2:46 PM

    Doryaspis was about 6". I'll try to make a chart, but do you mean a chart with the real size of the creatures (which I probably couldn't do because I posted Dunkleosteus which was 20' long) or a chart that just has the creatures to scale?

    ReplyDelete
  3. FlavorDavJune 14, 2011 at 2:53 AM

    Maybe something like this: http://www.merzo.net/

    ReplyDelete
  4. ArtJune 14, 2011 at 1:54 PM

    Yes, I see.

    ReplyDelete
  5. UnknownApril 24, 2015 at 9:58 AM

    There is no such thing as a Jawless Placoderm.

    ReplyDelete
  6. ArtJune 14, 2015 at 9:55 AM

    You are right, that's an error. I should have said Heterostracan. I will correct it. Thank you!

    ReplyDelete

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