Old Fish

Old Fish

Many people are interested in their ancestery, their heritige, and even the roots of their own evolution. Indeed, man has gone through many changes to become the homeosapien that he is today. But not many people stop to wonder about the origins of fish, even though the oldest fish were much more impressive than early man.

The picture above, the Dunkosteus Terelli, was probably one of the meanest pre-historic fish around, and one of the main predators too. It was about 33 feet long and could bite a shark in half. It is a placoderm, which means that instead of a soft skin it was armoured.

The most terrifying thing about the Dunkosteus was its bite- instead of teeth, the fish had developed gnathal plates that could exert 8,000 pounds of pressure- that's more than a great white shark, and also rivals the T-rex.

Becuase these mean prehistoric fish are long gone, man has little to worry about these huge predators.

But there are some fish that date all the way back to the beginning of time that still swim around today. One example is the coelacanth, who can live up to 100 years. It is not as fierce as the dunkosteus, but it still thrives today, which says something for its endurance.

The most intimidating prehistoric animal by far would be the Megadon, or the Giant Shark. Because it's body was made of cartilage, not bone, it has been difficult to find an accurate size. However, the smallest guess has been around 52 feet. "The Grandaddy of all Sharks" is rumoured to be the ancestor of the much smaller great white, and has teeth that are bigger than a man's hands. It had an amazing diet as well- while other sharks feasted on small fish fish, this shark ate whales.