I’m finding myself fascinated with sharks and the devonian in specific again. I think a lot of people overlook the devonian for its sea-life and look at the cambrian because of the whole cambrian explosion and whatnot. But the devonian offers so so so much cool stuff. We would get some of the earliest plants during this time (though they came about shortly before the devonian, evolving around the ordovician period.) and get a vast array of placoderms, tetrapods, and other funky creatures.

Had 2 get ready to leave whoops. But arthropods would start to make a bigger appearance on land and would be incredibly successful!!!! Plants and insects would spread rapidly on the fertile soil and lead to a surplus of oxygen!!!!!! The carboniferous!!!! These two periods are actually so incredibly cool to me, and are also detrimental to the evolution of life on earth. (Placoderms evolved into tetrapods, and are uhh I think a side group related to all jawed invertebrates ??? Since they were some of the first fish to develop jaws like what we have today)

thank you I am just very passionate about prehistory

about what in specific because I can go on and on forever

OK HOLD ON THEN

I will talk about placoderms to keep on topic with the Devonian because uhhh yah it is very cool. Placoderms, as I mentioned previously, are literally the backbone to modern sharks and rays, as well as some tetrapods. Their closest living relative that comes to mind is actually chimaeras, think of ratfish and ghost sharks. Although placoderms played an important role in the evolution of tetrapods, the ancestors to us humans and other mammals and stuff derive from lobe finned fishes!!! Lobe finned fish also came to be during the Devonian, so like???? Top ten reasons why I believe that the Devonian needs to be appreciated more. Uhhh continuing with the placoderms, the most famous placoderm is of course D.Terrelli, commonly known as Dunkleosteus. Super massive fat tub of lard armored giant of a fish that was around 11-13ft long (It used to be larger, but people recalculated based off of other placoderms rather than just the jaw.)

But shark wise, I can definitely talk about some of my favorites!!! (Scapanorhynchus, Ptychodus)

Ptychodus is most interesting because of its teeth. They were flat, crushing teeth (durophagous) and formed interesting pads in the upper and lower jaw called palatoquadrates. They used these teeth in order to crush hard shelled creatures, which were abundant in the late cretaceous seas that they lived in. Commonly theorized prey is turtles, hard shelled mollusks like ammonites, bivalves, and crustaceans. I've been searching for their teeth for a very very long time and I am planning on hopefully obtaining some this upcoming summer when I go planning for shark teeth again. They are so so so very interesting!!!!

Scapanorhynchus is a goblin shark. Crazy cool shark. They also lived in the cretaceous, and I own some teeth!!! The teeth are very uniquely shaped, and I think the curve they have is interesting. Image link to the teeth for scapanorhynchus... https://woostergeologists.scotblogs.wooster.edu/files/2012/08/Scapanorhynchus_rapax_Retzler1.jpg I don't know nearly as much about them as I do Ptychodus, but they would have been about 10-13 feet long and are theorized to be nocturnal hunters like their modern day relatives.

I'm not exactly the most knowledgeable person but learning about these prehistoric animals has always been a passion of mine lol. I think it is fun to research the history of such creatures and think of how they would've lived, how modern day relatives compare to their ancestors, and the importance they played in the world before their inevitable extinction. And you can't tell me that prehistoric goblin sharks and massive armored fish aren't badass.

YEAH I DO!!! OMG I CAN TRY TO FIND A PIC BUT THEYRE AWEEESOME

OK SOOOO I TYPICALLY FIND ALL MY STUFF FROM LOCAL SOURCES!!! Any scholarly sites, universities, etc. Lindsay Nikole, Raptor Chatter, and Ben G Thomas are all people I like to watch on youtube. Sometimes I just scroll thru papers on google scholar when I am bored https://paste.pics/f7fec47901e245eabf83f680ad59408a <- what I presume to be scapanorhynchus texanus

I got a bunch of others. I’m hoping to go panning for teeth again this summer to find ptychodus!!! If I do find it I may cry, EVEN IF ITS PARTIAL!