| Titanichthys Temporal range:
| |
|---|---|
.png)
| |
| Rendered reconstruction of Titanichthys clarkii | |
Scientific classification 
| |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | †Placodermi |
| Order: | †Arthrodira |
| Suborder: | †Brachythoraci |
| Superfamily: | †Dinichthyloidea |
| Family: | †Titanichthyidae Dean, 1901 |
| Genus: | †Titanichthys Newberry, 1885 |
| Type species | |
| †Titanichthys agassizi Newberry, 1885
| |
| Species | |
| |
| Synonyms | |
|
Brontichthys | |
Titanichthys is an extinct genus of giant, aberrant marine placoderm from shallow seas of the Late Devonian of Morocco, Eastern North America, and possibly Europe.[1] Many of the species approached Dunkleosteus in size and build. Unlike its relative, however, the various species of Titanichthys had small, ineffective-looking mouth-plates that lacked a sharp cutting edge. It is assumed that Titanichthys was a filter feeder that 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. A study has since confirmed this assumption as its jaws are functionally closer to that of filter feeders like baleen whales and basking sharks, and it appears to have developed from benthic durophagists that became pelagic suspension feeders. This would make it the first (known) large-sized vertebrate filter feeder.[2] Titanichthys was estimated to have reached a length of 7–7.6 m (23–25 ft),[3][4][5] but Engelman (2023) suggested that Titanichthys was comparable in size to Dunkleosteus, likely measuring about or just over 4.1 metres (13.5 ft) in length.[6]
- '^ Denison, Robert (1978). Placodermi Volume 2 of Handbook of Paleoichthyology. Stuttgart New York: Gustav Fischer Verlag. p. 100. ISBN 978-0-89574-027-4.
- ^ Coatham, Samuel J.; Vinther, Jakob; Rayfield, Emily J.; Klug, Christian (2020). "Was the Devonian placoderm Titanichthys a suspension feeder?". Royal Society Open Science. 7 (5): 200–272. Bibcode:2020RSOS....700272C. doi:10.1098/rsos.200272. PMC 7277245. PMID 32537223.
- ^ Bulletin 70. Ohio. Division of Geological Survey. 1996. p. 290. ISBN 978-0-931079-05-4. Retrieved 2022-08-28.
- ^ Charlie Underwood, Martha Richter, Zerina Johanson (2019). Evolution and Development of Fishes. Cambridge University Press. p. 13. ISBN 9781107179448. Retrieved 1 September 2022.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ Bashford Dean (1895). Fishes, Living and Fossil: An Outline of Their Forms and Probable Relationships. Macmillan and Company. p. 130. Retrieved 2022-08-28.
- ^ Engelman, Russell K. (2023). "A Devonian Fish Tale: A New Method of Body Length Estimation Suggests Much Smaller Sizes for Dunkleosteus terrelli (Placodermi: Arthrodira)". Diversity. 15 (3). 318. doi:10.3390/d15030318.