''Draconichthys elegans'' (meaning "elegant dragon fish") a selenosteid

arthrodire Arthrodira (Greek for "jointed neck") is an Order (biology), order of extinct armored, jawed fishes of the class Placodermi that flourished in the Devonian period before their sudden extinction, surviving for about 50 million years and penetratin ...

placoderm Placoderms (from Ancient Greek πλάξ 'plax'', ''plakos'''Plate (animal anatomy), plate' and δέρμα 'derma'''skin') are vertebrate animals of the class (biology), class Placodermi, an extinct group of prehistoric fish known from Pal ...

from the Late

Frasnian The Frasnian is one of two faunal stages in the Late Devonian Period. It lasted from million years ago to million years ago. It was preceded by the Givetian Stage and followed by the Famennian Stage. Major reef-building was under way during ...

Kellwasserkalk facies of the

Anti-Atlas Mountains The Anti-Atlas, also known as Lesser Atlas or Little Atlas, is a mountain range in Morocco, a part of the Atlas Mountains in the northwest of Africa. The Anti-Atlas extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the southwest toward the northeast, to the heig ...

of what is now

Morocco Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...

. During the Late Devonian, the region would have been a shallow, algae-dimmed sea. ''Draconichthys elegans'' differs from all other selenosteids in the structure of its gnathal plates, which are comparatively large, and have long teeth-like prongs. This feature strongly suggests that it was a predatory animal, and used its pronged gnathal plates to prevent seized prey from squirming out of its mouth. The anatomy of its skull, however, is otherwise very typical of selenosteids, being very similar to the genera '' Enseosteus'', ''

Rhinosteus ''Rhinosteus'' is an extinct genus of small to medium selenosteid arthrodire placoderms of the Late Devonian known from the Upper Frasnian Kellwasserkalk facies of Bad Wildungen, Germany and Morocco. Description ''Rhinosteus'' is a typical genu ...

'', and ''

Walterosteus ''Walterosteus'' is an extinct genus of small selenosteid arthrodire placoderms known from the Upper Frasnian Kellwasserkalk facies of Late Devonian Germany and Morocco Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Magh ...

''. ''D. elegans'' is currently known from a single skull about 112 millimetres in length.

References

Selenosteidae Placoderms of Africa Fossil taxa described in 2011 {{Placoderm-stub