@futurebird@mark I remember straight-up developing a lifelong case of thalassophobia from one illustration of a dunkleosteus in James Gurney's Dinotopia books, and I'm so glad now that child-me never considered the sound... this tanky lad terrified me lol.
Visited the Cleveland Museum of Natural History for the first time this weekend and they have fossils of that fish in five different places. It's IIUC the state fish fossil.
I swear, every time we turned around, it was staring at us. I'm going to remember "The Dunkleosteous had a self-sharpening beak" like I remember the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell.
@futurebird Dunkleosteus and its close relatives only armored the front of the body. Turtles and Ankylosaurs armored the whole body! (also, armadillos, pangolins, aetosaurs ...)