Re: Dunkleosteus (non-dinosaur)

["Dan felps" <edrioasteroid@hotmail.com>]

> 	I intend to research _Dunkleosteus_, a kind of Devonian armored fish. I
> was wondering if anyone new where I could get information on this fish, 
> particularily:
> 	Are there any other fossilized parts of this fish besides it's armored 
> head?

A good start would be _The Rise of Fishes : 500 Million Years of Evolution_ 
by John A. Long.  I don't think this genus is known from anything other than 
the armored head.  Some of its smaller relatives may be known from other 
elements of the body armor and skeleton.

>         I vonlunteer at the Falls of the Ohio State Park in New Albany,
> Indiana, and all of the fossils there are Devonian, but they do not have
> much info. on _Dunkleosteus_.
>         Also, I have another book that calls it _Dinichthys_. Are these the
> same animal or two different ones?

That is an old name for the same genus.  Sometimes bones of a smaller 
arthrodire, the genus _Prototitanichthys_, are found in the Devonian bone 
beds of southern Indiana and adjacent Kentucky.  A few years back I found a 
hand-sized piece of the armor which was covered by small bumps in the quarry 
in Bardstown in Nelson County, KY.  I donated it to the Cincinnati Museum of 
Natural History and took Glenn Storrs back to the quarry to see if anything 
else could be found.  So far only tiny chips of bone are common, but there 
is always the chance of finding a large bone.  Sometimes arthrodire bones 
are found in KY's Devonian black shales.  I understand the best specimens, 
including the large _Dunkleosteus_ head which is reproduced in various 
museums worldwide, were found when building roads near Cleveland, OH.
	 If you find any bones, see that they end up in the hands of Storrs or 
someone similarly qualified. Every year at the Falls Fossil Festival at the 
Falls of the Ohio Museum there is a dealer that has little chips of Devonian 
bone and Mississippian shark teeth which he tries to sell for outrageous 
prices. No telling what good stuff he may have destroyed getting this out as 
these type fossils are extremely brittle.

Sincerely,

Dan Phelps
President, Kentucky Paleontological Society
http://www.uky.edu/OtherOrgs/KPS/

Thanks,
> Sara Burch
> sara@burch.net


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