Flocking sketches! (insert "water and water and water water" reference here)

here's today's #Paleostream sketches!!! today we sketched Cambropachycope, Onychodus (i only drew the tooth whirl), Xenodens, and Lyrarapax (I drew, L. unguispinus)

Flocking Together #60

Cambropachycope (Orstenotubulus in the distance)/Onychodus

Obdurodon, a cenozoic platypus with big teeth Onychodus, a devonian lobe-finned fish Opallionectes, a cretaceous plesiosaur

Onychodontiforms

This bony jaw comes from a fish of the genus Onychodus, a type of widespread bony fish that lived in the Devonian age. Fossils from related species have been found from North America, Europe, and Africa. These sharp-toothed fishes were likely several meters long, with one specimen from Australia reaching 4 meters.

They are often found as seen here, just with the jaw – in part because this jaw may have weakly attached to the rest of the fish, with mostly cartilage holding it in place. The fish was therefore able to open its mouth wide, and another fossil has been found with large prey inside of it. When the organism died, this bony jaw could therefore detach and get caught in sediments.

It is thought that this organism may have been an ambush predator, lying in wait in a reef structure like a modern Moray Eel for prey to pass.

-JBB

Image credit: James St. John https://flic.kr/p/271715r

paleostream tiem lel

cambropachycope onychodus