A sea animal nicknamed “Dunk”, as suggested by one of the American universities, could live in Lake Erie – one of the five Great Lakes of North America.
Scientists have learned about a giant “alien fish” with an “armored” head that swam the Earth’s oceans about 360 million years ago after traces of this unusual creature were found in a US lake. This is reported by the Daily Star.
Dunkleosteus is considered one of the largest fish species ever found in water bodies on our planet and is believed to have dominated the ocean that once covered what is now the United States.
In a new study, scientists have found new evidence for this huge creature in Lake Erie, one of North America’s five Great Lakes that sits on the US-Canada border.
This discovery led scientists to speculate that they might be wrong about this marine life, which they thought was about 30 feet long (9 meters). It has now been revealed that Dunkleosteus – nicknamed “Dunk” – was actually about 13 feet (4 meters), about the same size as the average white shark.
“Dunk” is about the same size as the average white shark.
Photo: Diversity
“I looked through the literature, and it turned out that most of the previous authors who talked about the sizes, basically just estimated by eye,” Russell Engelman, a doctoral student at Case Western University in Cleveland, told Live Science.
Just because the creature was smaller than expected doesn’t make the beast any less formidable. Dunkleosteus had a huge jaw that could snap shut, exerting 8,000 pounds of force on anything caught between the teeth, and a bony “armored” skull. These details indicate that he would still be a dangerous predator.
The large sea monster lived from about 419 to 358 million years ago, after which it died out, most likely as a victim of changing conditions in the ocean during the “Hangenberg event” – a mass extinction when the level of oxygen in the water dropped.
“Alien fish” swam the seas about 360 million years ago
Photo: PA
The largest collection of Dunkleosteus fossils in the world is at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.
Earlier, Focus wrote that a metal ball was thrown onto a beach in Japan, which worried local authorities. An unusual object was discovered on Enshu Beach, which has spawned a string of conspiracy theories.
It was also reported that the man caught a giant Codzilla fish with a bait. Kyle Poole from Australia was helped to catch a big fish by a partner, and the creature was so huge that it pulled a boat of fishermen.
