Dunkleosteus is a genus of large extinct arthrodire fish that existed during the Late Devonian period, about 382–358 million years ago. It consists of ten species, some of which are among the largest placoderms to have ever lived: D. terrelli, D. belgicus, D. denisoni, D. marsaisi, D. magnificus, D. missouriensis, D. newberryi, D. amblyodoratus, D. raveri, and D. tuderensis, and the largest and most well known species is D. terrelli. Since body shape is not known, various methods of estimation put the living total length of the largest known specimen between 4.1 to 10 m (13 to 33 ft) long and weigh around 1–4 t (1.1–4.4 short tons).[1] Dunkleosteus could quickly open and close its jaw, like modern-day suction feeders, and had a bite force of 4,414–6,170 N (450–629 kgf; 992–1,387 lbf) at the tip and 5,363–7,495 N (547–764 kgf; 1,206–1,685 lbf) at the blade edge. Numerous fossils of the various species have been found in North America, Poland, Belgium, and Morocco. Dunkleosteus was a pelagic fish inhabiting open waters, and an apex predator of its ecosystem. Dunkleosteus fossils were first discovered in 1867 by Jay Terrell, a hotel owner and amateur paleontologist who collected fossils in the cliffs along Lake Erie near his home of Sheffield Lake, Ohio (due west of Cleveland). Terrell donated his fossils to John Strong Newberry and the Ohio Geological Survey, who in 1873 described all the material as belonging to a single new genus and species: Dinichthys herzeri. However, with later fossil discoveries by 1875 it became apparent multiple large fish species were present in the Ohio Shale. Dinichthys herzeri came from the lowermost layer, the Huron Shale, whereas most of the fossils were coming from the younger Cleveland Shale and represented a distinct species. Newberry named this more common species "Dinichthys" terrelli, after Terrell. Most of Terrell's original collection does not survive, having been destroyed by a fire in Elyria in 1873. The largest collection of Dunkleosteus fossils in the world is housed at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, with smaller collections (in descending order of size). Dunkleosteus was named in 1956 to honour David Dunkle (1911–1982), former curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. The genus name Dunkleosteus combines David Dunkle's surname with the Greek word ὀστέον (ostéon 'bone'), literally meaning 'Dunkle's-bone'. The type species D. terrelli was originally described in 1873 as a species of Dinichthys, its specific epithet chosen in honor of Jay Terrell, the fossil's discoverer.
US state fossil fish of: Ohio (D. terrelli)
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