Ancient fish with killer bite

Dunkleosteus clamped down on prey with three-quarters-of-a-ton force

An ancient, 1-metric-ton fish nearly as long as a school bus had a bite more powerful than nearly everything alive today, a new study reveals.

Analyzing fossils of 360-million-year-old Dunkleosteus terrelli (specimen at left) enabled researchers to make a simple model of how the 10-meter-long fish bit its prey. (Arrows depict direction of muscle contractions.)