The assignment was to "evolve" an animal using scientific principals we had studied. This is one of the results.

1. From the Cambrian to the Permian

3. Fish started appearing in the
beginning of the Paleozoic era.
The first of the armored fish
started in the Ordovician through
the Devonian and they ruled the
world during that time. Fish
started out as cartilaginous and
later developed a bone skeleton.

4. The world was completely covered
in water in the Paleozoic. Shallow
seas covered what now are
Ohio, Kansas and other great
plain countries in the U.S. These
shallow seas left well preserved
fossils for us to excavate later.

5.  Name:
Group Name: Ostracoderms (shell- skinned)
Scientific Name: Cartilago-anguilla (cartilage eel)
Common name: Sacabambaspis
 Length: Average of 30 centimeters long.
 Behaviors: The Sacabambaspis could withstand most
attacks because of it’s strong armor. It also could
camouflage.
 Traits: The Sacabambaspis was an algae sucker and it’s
predator was the Eurypterid (Sea scorpion).
 Climate: The land was very barren and hot on land.

6. The Sacabambaspis appeared 510
million years ago in the middle of the
Cambrian. Sacabambaspis had a bony
plate on the outside of their
cartilaginous body. Their armor covered
their head and upper torso exposing
their back half which was made up of
cartilage.

7. Sacabambaspis had scratches and pieces
knocked out of their armor from predators or
rough terrain. One of the predators that
caused these scratches and dents was the
Eurypterid (sea scorpion). The jaw was non-
existent at this time, the Sacabambaspis were
filter feeders. Their mouth was located either
on the bottom or the front of their head. Fish
such as the Sacabambaspis did not have fins
to flap their way through the water, but were
eel like and swam in an “S” motion.

8.  Kingdom: Animalia
 Super Class: Agnathans
 Phylum: Chordata
 Subphylum: Vertebrata
 Class: Cephalaspidomorphi
 Order: Petromyzontiformes
 Family: Petromyzontidae

9. Sacabambaspis
(Camouflaged form)

10. Eurypterid
(Sea scorpion)
Predator of the Sacabambapis

11. Leaping to the Next evolution

13. During the Ordivician, a bony vertebral
column began to appear in fish. The fish
began to have complicated structures. The
suspected cause for rapid evolution is the
movement and placement of the continents.
In the beginning of the Devonian nearly all
Ostracoderms were wiped out.

14. Other fish began to show up in huge
quantities after most of the Ostracoderms
were gone. This massive amount of fish gave
the Devonian it’s name, “The Age of Fish”.
Placoderms arrived during the Silurian and
the Devonian replacing the Ostracoderms.

15.  Name:
Group name: Placoderms (Armor Skinned)
Scientific name: Auctorrisus (Powerful Bone)
Common name: Dunkleosteus
 Length: Up to 33 feet long
 Weight: 4 tons (that’s the weight of 4
elephants!!!)

16.  During the Devonian, there were two
continents, Gondwana and
Euramerica, located close to each other. A
ocean covered the rest of the globe, and the
land was completely dry. The climate was
relatively warm and dry. There were no
glaciers until the Late Devonian, when ice
began to cover parts of the South Polar
region.

17. The world in the Devonian period
Gondwana, Euramerica and Siberia

18. The armor of the Auctorrisus covered their entire
head and some of their body. Dunkleosteus had
armor surrounding their eyes and had functional
jaws unlike the Sacabambaspis. The
Dunkleosteus did not have “teeth” but had bone
extrusions that connected to the skull. It’s
powerful bite had 11,000 pounds of strength and
if the knives in it’s month concentrate that
strength in a little point of the front it would with
an amazing strength of 80,000 pounds per
square inch. The Great White Shark, only could
bite with half of this strength.

19. The Auctorrisus had no predators so most
people think that the armor was useless, but
scientists think that they were cannibals. The
Dunkleosteus armor was over 2 inches thick.
Unfortunately they only lasted 50 million
years and they branched off to many different
species around the world.

20. Auctorrisus
The Dunkleosteus

21. Ostracoderms Placoderms

22.  Kingdom: Animalia
 Phylum: Chordata
 Class: Chonrichtyes
 Order: Rajiformes

23. The Labyrinthodont
The Dawn of the Amphibians

25. There was a mass extinction in the
Devonian and almost all
Dunkleosteus were killed. To
adapt to the dramatic changes the
water, they evolved into
amphibians and roamed on land.

26.  Name:
Group name: Crocodilian (crocodile)
Scientific name:Errordentium (maze of teeth)
Common name: Labyrinthodont (maze of
teeth)
 Length: Average 15 feet (head to tail)

27. The climate in the
Carboniferous was very hot
and humid. The first forests
started to appear. In the
Carboniferous there were lots
more continents developing.

28. World in the Carboniferous

29. Labyrinthodont were giant amphibians
distantly related to newts and salamanders.
In outward appearance Labyrinthodont
looked much like modern salamanders, but
with two main differences; they had jaws
full of sharp teeth; and they often grew to
enormous sizes.
The smaller Labyrinthodont ate insects and
fish, but the bigger ones sometimes ate
larger animals.

30. The many sharp teeth they had were
useful for catching such things as fish
and perhaps unwary small dinosaurs
that got too close to the water’s edge.
But when the teeth of one good-sized
Labyrinthodont called Siderops kehli
were carefully examined, all that was
found were the fossilized remains of
millipedes and a piece of the backbone
of another Labyrinthodont, meaning
they were cannibals.

31. It had a large head and powerful teeth, but
had a relatively weak body so it hunted food
underwater, and ate land animals at the
water's edge, much like a crocodile would. To
capture small prey in the water, all it needed
to do was to open its mouth, and the rush of
water would have sucked prey straight in.
Strange enough, it’s teeth indicate that
Labyrinthodont was not content on sucking up
small prey.

32.  Kingdom: Animalia
 Phylum: Chordata
 Class: Anphibia
 Order: Caudata

33. Labyrinthodont

34. Labyrinthodont
It’s Hunting

35. The Death of them all

37. You might be wondering, what
happened to the Labyrinthodont
between the time they evolved and the
mass extinction? The answer is
nothing. The Labyrinthodont did not
have a reason to evolve, so they
stayed the same.

38. The mass extinction wiped out 90-95%
of marine animals. This was it’s main
diet and was the only thing that young
Labyrinthodont eat and adults also ate
fish. The lack of food caused all
Labyrinthodont to die out.

40. Arreola, Freddie. “The Evolution of Armored Fish”.
Cochise College Geology . Weller, Roger. Spring 2005.
October 2011
<http://skywalker.cochise.edu/wellerr/students/arm
ored-fish/armored-fish.htm>
“Labyrinthodont”. JoyZine. 2009. November 2, 2011
<http://www.artistwd.com/joyzine/australia/articles/
dinosaurs/labyrinthodont.php>

41. “The Permian Mass Extinction”. Park.
November 7, 2011
<http://park.org/Canada/Museum/extinctio
n/permass.html>
Burton, Virginia. Life Story. Burton Virginia, 1962