Eastmanosteus sp. SOLD
System: Middle Devonian.
Floor: Givetian.
Origin: Jbel Mrakib, Maider, Morocco.
Measurements: 17.5 cm x 14 cm
Bony plate of placoderm fish, just the one located under the eye.
Eastmanosteus is a fossil genus of dunkleosteid placoderms. It was closely related to the giant Dunkleosteus, but differed from that genus in size, possessing a distinctive tuberculate bony ornament, a differently shaped nuchal plate, and a more zigzagging course of the skull roof sutures.
Placoderms (Placodermi, from Greek, πλάξ=plate, δέρμα=skin, "plate skin") are an extinct class of primitive fish. They were the first gnathostomes, that is, the first vertebrates with jaws. They appeared at the end of the Silurian (about 416 million years ago) and were able to last until the early Carboniferous.
Placoderms were characterized by the presence of bony plates in the anterior part of their body, in addition to having an even number of limbs and having jaws, which originated from the first modified branchial arch. The rest of the body was covered in scales, or could even lack them.
