Ostracoderms, armored fishes without jaws
It’s hard to imagine a life without a jaw—we need one to eat and interact with one another through speech. Yet like every other part in our body, it didn’t always exist back in life’s evolutionary history.
Strange as it may seem, these fishes thrived in the waters of this planet over 450 million years ago. They were common animals, with fossils of these peculiar creatures having been unearthed since the 1830s. Even with their limited knowledge of the deep time, the era’s scientists noticed that these fishes clearly looked like no other living animal they knew.
—
Read the full story here and but the image as a print or t-shirt here.
(via moreanimalia)
Source: franzanth
